Matt Shalbrack/Winonan

From Robert Zemeckis, director of such films as the “Back to the Future” series, “Forrest Gump” and “Castaway” comes “Flight,” starring Denzel Washington, Don Cheadle, Kelly Reilly and John Goodman.

The film starts out with Washington’s character, William “Whip” Whitaker and a fellow flight attendant, Katerina Marquez played by Nadine Velazquez, awake together in a hotel room, still intoxicated from the night before.

Whitaker and Marquez head to the airport for a flight to Atlanta that Whitaker is scheduled to pilot.

During the flight’s takeoff, heavy turbulence makes Whitaker punch the gas on the engines to fly through a little opening between two storm systems.

Once the airplane reaches a comfortable cruising altitude, Whitaker makes a Screwdriver and takes a nap.

During the plane’s final descent, Whitaker is woken up to more turbulence and system alarms ringing throughout the cabin.

The plane dives steeply, while Whitaker tries to recover from the dive. However, as it is learned later in the film, the plane’s equipment malfunctions and in order to get out of the dive, Whitaker inverts the plane upside down before flipping it right side up and crash landing in a field.

Charlie Anderson, played by Bruce Greenwood, a representative for the airline’s pilot union, greets him in the hospital and tells Whitaker he saved 96 of 102 people on the flight. Anderson also tells Whitaker that Marquez was among the dead.

The next night in the hospital after talking with the National Transportation Safety Board investigators, Whitaker meets Nicole, a heroin addict who was in the hospital because of an overdose. They meet in the stairwell and Whitaker promises that he will visit her once they both get out of the hospital.

When Whitaker leaves the hospital, he is picked up by his cocaine dealer, Harling Mays played by John Goodman.

Staying clear of his media-infested apartment building, Whitaker goes to his late-father’s farm and tries to start anew.

Whitaker visits Nicole at her home just like he promised. She’s in the process of being evicted and Whitaker invites her to live at the farm with him.

The NTSB finds out that Whitaker was the only pilot who could have landed the plane without killing everyone on board.

However, they also finds out that he had been intoxicated during the flight which is illegal.

Hugh Lang, a lawyer from Chicago, is assigned to the airplane crash. He does everything in his power to get Whitaker off the hook for possible drug and manslaughter charges.

Whitaker ends up going to trial with the NTSB to discuss the events that lead up to and happened on the day of the plane crash.

Anderson and Lang try to keep Whitaker sober for the hearing. He had gone nine days without drinking, but the night before the trial he gave in.

In the morning, Anderson and Lang find Whitaker passed out and bloodied on the bathroom floor. They call Mays who brings over cocaine.

Once Whitaker is perked up from the cocaine, he heads to the trial. Everything during the trial is going according to plan and it looks like Whitaker is going to be found innocent.

Because Marquez’s toxicology report from the NTSB was the only valid one, Whitaker is asked an array of questions about her.

He pauses for a long time, eventually admitting that he was drunk and on drugs when he flew the plane. Whitaker even admits that he was high and drunk during the trial.

Whitaker is sentenced to prison and talks about what being away from alcohol has done for him.

Overall, this film seems like it’s going to start out as an action movie, but eventually you realize that it’s drama filled with the ups and downs that are associated with being an alcoholic or a drug user.

This film was average in my opinion, but mainly because it fits into the same cliché nature that every other film about booze and drugs is about.

Washington plays a fantastic character that is much different from many of the other roles he has played in the past.

If you’re interested in a film with a turbulent plot from start to finish, then this is the film for you. If you’re looking for an action film, then you better not board this flight.

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