Flightplan (PG-13)

Whether it’s in a crowded mall or a local playground, every parent’s worst nightmare is the thought of losing their child. More often than not the child is found safe and sound but the situation, if even for a fleeting moment of uncertainty is still a horrifying ordeal. But what would you do if your daughter went missing on a trans-Atlantic airplane flight – and everyone else told you she was never there to begin with?

This depiction occurs in the 2005 Robert Schwentke thriller “Flightplan.” At the opening of the movie, we meet Kyle Pratt (Jodie Foster) an aircraft engineer working in Berlin. Kyle’s husband has just died, the result of a mysterious fall from the roof of a building, and she will be flying the body back to Long Island for burial. Accompanying her is her six-year-old daughter Julia. Traumatized by the death of her father, Julia is quiet and timid, fearful to even step outside. Kyle must hide her in her coat just to get her to leave the house and enter a taxi.

Kyle and Julia board the giant airplane (one that Kyle herself had a hand in designing) and together take a nap. When Kyle awakens, there is no sign of Julia. Believing her to be hiding due to her recent trauma, Kyle begins searching the enormous aircraft. When her efforts prove fruitless, she enlists the help of flight attendants Fiona (Erika Christensen) and Stephanie (the sultry Kate Beahan) and eventually the pilot (Sean Bean). After turning the plane upside down in mid-flight, the pilot is notified of some distressing news that he must break to Kyle; Julia died in the fall with her father and was never on the plane to begin with. The passenger manifest and a call to the morgue in Berlin confirm this, and the air marshal (Peter Sarsgaard) is forced to take a hysterical Kyle into custody for the safety of everyone else on board.

Is the disappearance a conspiracy of the airline? The plot of several Arab men on board as part of a plan to hijack the plane? Or has the recently widowed Kyle simply crossed the border of sanity?

“Flightplan” is a fast paced thriller with an unusual and extraordinary plot. My biggest problem is the casting of Jodie Foster as Kyle. Foster is a great actress, the winner of eleven Academy Awards, and utterly dominant in her role of Clarice Starling in 1991s “The Silence of the Lambs” but just seems slightly askew as the frantic parent Kyle. “Flightplan” is loaded with plot holes and inconsistencies but the suspense is gripping. The impossible situation of a child gone missing on a plane in mid-flight just adds to the intrigue. The film is a simple and fun watch.

– by Matt Christopher