What if I was to tell you that the pilot of your plane was high on booze and cocaine? You’d experience a certain sense of mortal dread, I’d imagine. You’re 30,000 feet in the air and in the hands of some junky in the cockpit. But what if I also told you that this plane was going to suffer a severe mechanical failure, end up diving uncontrollably toward earth, and the only person capable of landing it safely is that same delinquent pilot stinking of handle? It’s a different story altogether now — and that story is “Flight.”

Plot revolves around alcohol abuse and miraculous flight maneuver

Robert Zemeckis, director of “Forrest Gump” and the “Back to the Future” trilogy, knows how to take a character and make him or her larger than life, placing them smack dab in the center of a compelling narrative. In “Flight,” that character is Captain Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington), a suave drunkard who boozes in excess and snorts blow, which brings him out of his inebriated stupor and allows him to fly. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a movie character drink as much as Whip. He’s the last man I would want flying my plane — but also the one I’d want most. Early in the film, Whip’s plane suddenly dives at a 90 degree angle while descending into Atlanta. When all hope seems lost, Whip miraculously lands the failing machine into a remote country field. How did he do this? He “rolled it,” a technique of inverting the entire plane in order to level it out, then flipping it rightside up again and into a steady glide. I wonder if that’s an actual technique in the FAA handbook? Scary.

Whip wakes up in a hospital after the crash with an army of news people sitting outside to get a piece of him. The last place an alcoholic wants to be is in the limelight, especially one in denial of his own ailment. Thinking he will he hailed a hero for landing the doomed plane and then left alone, Whip is blindsided when the National Transportation Safety Board launches an investigation of his direct involvement in the crash; when Whip’s blood was taken at the hospital, it showed a .24 blood alcohol level – anything above a .08 is a felony when driving a car, much less a commercial jet. Suddenly Whip is thrown into a world of doubt and self-confrontation, navigating through the investigation with the help of his friend Charlie (Bruce Greenwood) and airline attorney Hugh Lang (Don Cheadle). Whip also finds solace in Nicole (Kelly Reilly), a recovering heroin-addict whom Whip met in the hospital post-crash. While Whip exudes a strong confidence — or a “false sense of pride” as he himself later calls it — he seems to have a tendency for latching onto people, as most struggling addicts do.

Washington’s performance is brilliantly self-destructive

“Flight” is primarily driven by Washington's tempestuous and unpredictable performance as Whip. There is a darkness to addiction, whether you see it from a spiritual, psychological or emotional standpoint; Whip displays all three of those points. While the specific reasons for his addiction are never truly determined, it’s clear that Whip is self-destructive. He has a horrible relationship with his ex-wife and teenage son whom he barely talks to. It seemed to me that Whip’s greatest issue was loneliness and a desire to avoid facing the man in the mirror, which he achieved by drowning himself in things that would transcend painful sobriety.

“Flight” is more a character study than a mystery or thriller, though it does have one of the most elaborate and disturbing plane crash sequences ever shot. It was similar in its intensity to the plane crash in “Castaway,” which Zemeckis also directed. He knows how to pace a film and make it about the people of the story rather than the harsh circumstances that bring them together – or force them apart. “Flight” isn’t about the plane crash, but about how the event forced Whip to fight for his life both against his addiction and the idea that he caused the crash rather than an equipment malfunction. I loved that aspect of it, though the third act does seem to miss a certain sense of finality in Whip’s character arc.

God’s presence sleeks in the film’s background

My favorite scene in “Flight” is when Whip and Nicole first meet in a hospital stairwell, joined by a roaming chemo patient who ironically bums a cigarette from Nicole. This unnamed patient is played by James Badge Dale, who gives a singularly brief yet brilliant performance as a man who has happily accepted the reality of his own approaching demise, thus accepting each new morning of life as a gift from God. “Flight” had plenty to say about the speculation of God’s involvement in our lives; some characters believed that the crash was an act of God, and that Whip’s landing was a coinciding miracle. Dale’s chemo character claims “You’d have to be a pretty dumb [expletive] to not believe in God.” Whip isn’t sure. He has to first face his own demons before putting stock in anything outside the escape of liquor. “Flight” is sad an exhilarating, and only Washington could have made Whip one of the most lovable anti-heroes to date.