Mel Gibson returns to the director’s chair, nine years after he was nominated by the directing branch at the Oscars for Hacksaw Ridge, a biopic about Desmond Doss, a pacifist medic who saved countless lives in Japan during World War II. This time he directs Flight Risk, a icy flight thriller penned by Jared Rosenberg, which was placed on the Hollywood Black List, for the most-liked unproduced screenplays. It is a tight script with just three players. Mark Wahlberg is the unreliable Pilot, transporting Michelle Docherty’s Deputy Marshall and informant, Winston, played by Topher Grace.
The film opens with Winston getting arrested by Deputy Marshall Harris in a snowy and remote Alaskan motel. Harris does everything by the book in what is her first mission back in the field in a few years. She arrives at a private plane with Winston, who is an accountant for the mob boss, turned informant, chained to his chair. Mark Wahlberg turns up on the plane as the pilot, however, Harris soon notices some things that look wrong. A scar behind his ear and a blood stain on his jumper. Things are about to go awry.
But, whilst it may be a tight script by being a one-location thriller with just three characters, it lacks any form of drama, tension or thrill, with poor dialogue and shocking make-up effects to come with it. Even at a brief 90 minutes, the film is a slog to get through, there is nothing to sink your teeth into, and the premise never really takes off. There are maybe two or three brief action scenes and that is about it, and dialogue scenes do not feel tense or suspenseful. It feels like it was made on the cheap, from Wahlberg’s neon red scar to the lack of any dramatic moments.
It is as if the film was shot all in one afternoon, without much in the way of direction, with three varying and wayward performances. Wahlberg is completely overegging it, playing the at first cheeky, negligent but charming pilot, that soon becomes a nuisance. Topher Grace is goofy, sounding more like a cartoon character you’d expect in Looney Tunes rather than an informant fearing for his life. Meanwhile, Michelle Docherty is completely serious. They are giving three contrasting performances from what feels like three different films.
This is partially down to Gibson’s directing, but also a lame script that feels more like a half-baked concept than a feature film. However, the only saving grace is that the Harris figure does have some kind of an arc that the film can cling to. Nevertheless, when she states “Not long now” as they are closing in on their final destination, it felt like a massive sigh of relief that I wouldn’t have to sit through this dull, drab and uninteresting film for much longer.
Flight Risk is lowest common denominator filmmaking. A cheaply made thriller without much thrill, tension or excitement. A film that goes down like a lead balloon and can’t stick the landing
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