FLIGHT

Denzel Washington shines in all his movies but he's at the top of the brilliant stars in this film. He plays Whip, an experienced airline pilot who manages to competently do his job in spite of a drug and alcohol problem.

Washington is superb and totally believable in all the booze and cocaine scenes. and since Whip is acted by Washington, he is suave and glib and very attractive to the ladies and well-liked. But he is also a divorced dad who has alienated his ex and his teenage son.

So after a night of sex and drugs, he goes to work still loaded. The initial very very tense scene involving his piloting has to do with him threading a skinny channel of air turbulence to get above the rough rain and wind storm. He does this very successfully and as he's talking to the passengers he's emptying 2 bottles of vodka into orange juice.

About 20 minutes before descent, the plane starts falling apart; screws come loose and rudders are stuck and engines blow up but he manages in extremely suspenseful edge-of-your-seat scenes to land the plane with only 6 fatalities. Everyone acknowledges that no other pilot could have landed that plane and saved so many lives. so whip is declared a hero though inside he starts disintegrating since he knows the condition he was in and the fact that the toxicology report shows that he had alcohol in his system.

However, the airline union and the airline company start maneuvering to hide the fact of his drunkenness, to hype up the hero status and to blame everything on the faulty mechanics of the plane and the manufacturers of the parts.

The rest of the movie shows an evertightening noose around Whip and an increasing need to lie more and more to keep his 'secret'. There are surprises and twists throughout the film and the suspense and tension does NOT stop with the plane crash. John Goodman is Whip's drug dealer and he is hilariously in your face funny. There's a subplot involving Whip's involvement with a recovering heroin addict which could have been eliminated entirely. However, it didn't subtract from the movie's main narrative.

wow- Denzel Washington rocks; acting arrogant and cool and sophisticated and also desperate and hung-over and dishonest and rude and out of control and tender and full of rage and funny and depressed. We both rated the movie a 9. And Don Cheadle plays his lawyer and he is great.