Director: Mel Gibson
Writer: Jared Rosenberg
Stars: Michelle Dockery, Mark Wahlberg, Topher Grace
Synopsis: A pilot transports an Air Marshal accompanying a fugitive to trial. As they cross the Alaskan wilderness, tensions soar and trust is tested, as not everyone on board is who they seem.
A script is where a film begins. It’s the first impression of what a film could be. It’s where a reader can envision elements and shots and how a film could take shape. It’s where an idea can grab hold of a producer and make them excited to pull this idea into reality. With all this excitement and imagination at play, a question comes to mind. Why would these professionals, these artists, choose to work on something so utterly subpar as Flight Risk?
Flight Risk has a very poorly written script. The plot is solid. The conceit is solid. It’s the details within that are baffling. Why things happen and the motivations of characters are completely muddled. What’s worse is the dialogue. Most of the dialogue sounds so rote and unoriginal it had to have been cribbed from a list of basic dialogue in a script writing book. What’s worse is when Daryl’s (Mark Wahlberg) true self is revealed. Daryl’s equal opportunity sexual harassment and aggressiveness toward any combination of sexual congress with the two other people in the plane is regressive and homophobic. He spouts the most detestable vulgarities. Words that sound an awful lot like they were taken from a very infamous recording of director Mel Gibson.
Though, that is the elephant in the room. In all the advertising for Flight Risk, Gibson’s name is not as prominent as his beloved credits. The trailers touted “From the director of…” and the poster was “From the award winning director of…” It’s as if the PR department are hoping the pedigree has outlasted the man whose name is still mud to many filmgoers. Though, seeing as Mel Gibson’s last film, Hacksaw Ridge, was nominated for six Academy Awards including a Best Director nomination for Gibson, his name no longer holds as much of a stink as it once did with his industry peers.
In fact, as hard as it is to praise him, Gibson’s direction is the only thing that makes Flight Risk at all watchable. He has a command of tension, action thrills, and pacing. Gibson and cinematographer Johnny Derango are able to make the cramped space of the small aircraft exciting. Gibson even gets somewhat watchable performances out of his actors.
As far as the acting goes, Topher Grace’s Winston’s smartest guy in the room routine wears thin immediately. Michelle Dockery seems completely uncomfortable as tough woman Madolyn. Mark Wahlberg’s Daryl is on a whole other level. To call Wahlberg a ham in Flight Risk is to insult every hammy actor who has ever lived. He steals every scene not because his performance is compelling, but he’s acting right over the top of his scene partners. He doesn’t chew the scenery, but swallows it whole as he stares into your eyes in the most disturbing way possible. It’s an uncanny valley you can’t climb out of because he claws you back down there with him.
Flight Risk was obviously made on a shoestring budget with its poor CGI and a cast with more voiceovers than on screen speaking roles. Yet, unlike other small budget action films, Flight Risk can’t get off the ground because not enough care was put into its script. To call it a by the numbers film is giving it too much credit. It’s a film that colored outside the lines in all the wrong ways.
