Directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Denzel Washington, the action-filled drama "Flight" (2012) follows the story of airline pilot Whip Whitaker, who miraculously saves a plane from crashing and killing its passengers. However, once an investigation begins into the malfunctions of the plane, troubling news surfaces that Whip had been drinking and using drugs during the flight and could be held accountable for the accident. Whip is then forced to come to terms with his addiction, revealing just how difficult the road to recovery can be for addicts. "Flight" also stars Don Cheadle and John Goodman. Laura Sim
Directed by: ZemeckisWith: Washington, Cheadle and Goodman139 minutesRated R
All hail "Flight" as the return to form for both Zemeckis and Washington. After an unfortunate decade-long foray into motion-capture films, Zemeckis returns to the land of the living to give us one of the most harrowing portrayals of alcoholism ever put on screen. Washington throws his hat into an already crowded Best Actor race as a charming pathological liar who refuses to own up to his mistakes. Varun Bhuchar
Both a morality play and a character piece, Zemeckis' "Flight" is an earnest though not particularly exciting portrait of a pilot who is simultaneously both a hero and a cad. The title of the movie refers to both the physical crisis entailed by the plane crash, but also to Whitaker's flight from responsibility he is not a villain, but he is drunk when it is most important for him to be sober. Zemeckis does not romanticize the plight of the alcoholic, nor does he vilify Whitaker as a completely unsympathetic man. The strength in the movie lies in Washington's ability to draw out ambivalent judgment of the main character. Katie Tai