Flight Risk Review
What a week it has been across the pond in the grand old US of A: Joe Biden has left office to be replaced by the man mountain that is Donald Trump and the world is super excited about what is to come. Not. Mere minutes after taking office, the new-old President signed executive orders tearing down progress on women’s choice, gender equality, and climate change, getting his wall back up and running, whilst pardoning his friends, the baying mob who took it upon themselves to storm The Capitol Building in 2021. Yep, we are all bricking it. If that wasn’t enough for us all to endure, this week we see the release of a new film by Mel Gibson, a devout Trump supporter with his own long list of enemies. What a time to be alive, you’d think, but trying our best to separate the man and the artist, his latest directorial effort, Flight Risk, isn’t quite the dumpster fire that many had anticipated.
The film sees Gibson re-team with his Father Stu co-star Mark Wahlberg, who takes on a rare villainous role for this one. Beginning with a key witness in a mob boss’s trial, namely Winston (Topher Grace), he is being transported to a secure location by US Marshal Madelyn Harris (Michelle Dockery) before the court case begins. Taking them across the dangerous Alaskan mountains towards Anchorage is pilot Daryl Booth (Mark Wahlberg) but Booth, as you may have guessed, isn’t all he seems and is quickly revealed to be a hitman sent by the mob boss to have Winston killed. Stuck together at 5,000ft, Harris will have to use all her skills to nullify Booth’s threat and bring Winston home safely.
Given his previous track record, this seems like a strange project for Gibson the filmmaker. 1995’s Braveheart brought a cavalcade of awards including Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director, 2004’s The Passion of the Christ broke all box-office records for an R-rated film at the time whilst 2006’s Apocalypto and 2016’s Hacksaw Ridge continued his run of critical acclaim. All, though, are a million miles away from the acting roles he is best known for, particularly films like Lethal Weapon and Mad Max, and it seems he has been itching to direct something in a similar vein. Now he’s getting to enjoy a good scratch with Flight Risk.
A claustrophobic, taut, and contained thriller, it’s certainly less sprawling than Gibson’s previous efforts but still gives the filmmaker plenty to wrestle with, especially the single location aspect that allows for plenty of dramatics, most of which will keep you guessing until its conclusion. Utilising both real cinematography and cutting-edge wrap-around images, there’s certainly an immersive quality to the film, and coupled with Gibson’s unshowy direction, it makes for an uncomfortable, rousin,g and effective ride even if much of the dialogue leaves a lot to be desired. It’s a million times better than the recent slew of awful Netflix originals of a similar ilk so, for that alone, it gets a pass.
Struggling with the hackneyed dialogue, albeit gallantly, are the film’s trio of stars with Downton Abbey alumnus Dockery coming out the best of the bunch with a strong, forceful turn whilst Grace, for all his goodwill and humour, fails to make much of an impact. Then there’s Wahlberg, hamming it up monumentally as a ludicrous villain that owes more to Willem Dafoe’s turn in Speed 2: Cruise Control than any other mature, thoughtful adversary, though Dafoe had much more skill than the Daddy’s Home star. He’s nasty enough but seems more interested in being creepy than genuinely ferocious. It’s in keeping with the film’s overt lunacy, mind you, but like Flight Risk itself with its lean 90-minute runtime, he doesn’t outstay his welcome.
★★ 1/2
In UK cinemas on January 24th / Mark Wahlberg, Michelle Dockery, Topher Grace / Dir: Mel Gibson / Lionsgate / 15
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