Flightplan (2005)

Flightplan stars Jodie Foster as a grieving widow and airplane engineer who boards a massive plane in Berlin along with her young daughter to take her deceased husband back to the U.S.A. What follows is a parental nightmare as, not only does her daughter disappear, but strangely no-one seems to have noticed the child and evidence suggests that she either doesn't exist or died. The mother's desperate search and infuriation at the mounting accusations that she might be insane lead to her being detained by an Air Marshall while alienating her from the flight crew and passengers. The plot gets even more convoluted and improbable, involving conspiracy, a ransom, hijacking and things best left for a Die Hard film. While Jodi Foster plays a thoroughly distressed but determined mother well, the rest of the characters seem half-realised and mostly just serve as plot devices. As the film nears the conclusion and the pieces of the dramatic puzzle fall into place, plot holes and utterly silly factual errors glare brighter than the runway lights on the Tarmac. OK for a Thriller/Mystery but a better written story with some attention to detail could have elevated this story to greater heights instead of leaving it circling on the runway.

Erik M.