Barnes & Noble

A chilling variation on the old “locked room” whodunit, Flightplan is a tense thriller that, like the best of that type, tells a highly improbable story with cold, implacable logic. Jet-propulsion engineer Kyle Pratt (Jodie Foster), accompanied by her young daughter, Julia (Marlene Lawston), flies from Berlin to New York on an airliner she helped design. The journey is already a sad one for Kyle: She’s bringing home the body of her recently deceased husband. But the trip gets worse when she wakes up from a mid-flight nap to find Julia gone -- and nobody remembers having seen the child to begin with. Working from a nearly airtight script, director Robert Schwentke (Tattoo) extracts the fullest possible measure of suspense from every sequence. His job is made easier by Foster’s sensational performance. The Oscar-winning actress is so convincing as the distraught, tightly wound -- and possibly mentally disturbed -- widow that you’ll begin to wonder if the child isn’t a figment of her overworked imagination. The supporting players deliver naturalistic, casual portrayals that reinforce Schwentke’s depiction of a normal transatlantic flight thrown into turmoil by the increasingly harsh ravings of what appears to be a deranged woman. Peter Sarsgaard is competence personified as a no-nonsense air marshal; Sean Bean impresses as the concerned captain; and Erika Christensen shines as a sympathetic flight attendant. For its first two-thirds the film recalls Alfred Hitchcock’s classic The Lady Vanishes, but the third act shifts into action-movie mode and brings to mind Die Hard, among others. Once the film is over you may be able to chip away at the solution and find some inconsistencies, but while it’s unfolding Flightplan will keep you glued to your seat -- and that’s just what you want in a nail-biter, isn’t it? Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

A woman is forced to prove her own sanity to save the life of her daughter in this taut thriller. Kyle Pratt (Jodie Foster) is a successful aircraft designer who has recently been dealing with the traumatic death of her husband. After traveling to Berlin on business with her six-year-old daughter, Julia (Marlene Lawston), Kyle falls asleep on their flight back to New York, only to discover that her daughter has gone missing. While not knowing where Julia has gone is troubling enough, even more disturbing is the insistence by sky marshal Gene Carson (Peter Sarsgaard) and Captain Rich (Sean Bean) that no records indicate that the child ever boarded the jet. As Kyle becomes increasingly desperate to find her daughter, she must prove to the men in charge that her daughter did in fact board the plane with her, and that this turn of events is not a product of her imagination. But if Julia has gone missing, who has taken her and why? Also starring Erika Christensen and Kate Beahan, Flightplan was the first English-language feature from German director Robert Schwentke. Mark Deming

Product Details

• UPC: 786936724950
• Source: TOUCHSTONE / DISNEY
• Region Code: A
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby AC-3 Surround Sound
• Language: Français
• Time: 1:38:00
• Sales Rank: 19,694

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