Flightplan (English, 2005)

Very few actors have the capacity to do a good comeback. Jodie Foster comes back after a long gap, and does that with aplomb. Flightplan is one of those terse thrillers which fool you into thinking that you have got the plot, and then do a U-turn.

The movie begins with Kyle Pratt (Jodie Foster) looking absolutely dazed and jerky. We soon come to know that her husband has just died and she is going back from Berlin to New York with her daughter and her husband's casket. Mid-air, in a huge aircraft, she wakes up from a doze to find that her daughter has vanished. And apparently, her daughter was never there on the plane - the passenger manifest doesn't have her name, the ground staff don't have any record of checking her in, no crew-member or passenger remembers seeing her, and the clincher - the morgue director when contacted says that her daughter died along with her husband.

The movie is a story of a rude awakening. Kyle, who has more or less switched off after her husband's death, is surrounded by evidence that questions her sanity. Everyone around her is implying that she believes in a daughter who is already dead. She has to get out of her "hung" state, get her senses back and find out what's really happening. A tough role, amazingly well done by Jodie. I won't tell you the story further because that will spoil the movie if you haven't seen it already.

The movie is brilliant on several counts. First and foremost is the superb performance by Jodie Foster. This movie is an intelligent thriller. Any thriller relies on four points - its pace, its plot's twists and turns, the portrayal of characters stretched to their limits and the cinematography. This movie is not very fast, though it keeps on moving at a nice enough pace. But the plot, you cannot help admiring the twists as they unfold. The performances are brilliant. The movie revolves around Kyle and Jodie does an wonderful job of it. And the cinematography, the attention to details is amazing. The whole movie is inside a large aeroplane, mid-air, and is about exploring all its parts to search for a missing child. And all the time, you keep on saying to yourself - hey, this plane is beautiful.
Rating - ✔✔✔