This aerial thriller fails artistically

Lionsgate’s ad campaign for “Flight Risk” credits its latest film to the “award-winning director of ‘Braveheart,’ ‘Apocalypto,’ and ‘Hacksaw Ridge,'” which seems a circumspect way of acknowledging Mel Gibson as its director. Unfortunately, the film’s problem isn’t that it’s missing Gibson’s name, but rather his personality as a filmmaker. Reminding the audience of these very good images sets expectations way too high before watching this lifeless, shoddy, cheap thriller.

Working from a beloved Black List script by young Jared Rosenberg, Gibson recruits his “Father Stu” co-star Mark Wahlberg to play the villain in a lockdown thriller that doesn’t even need Oscar-winning talent, just basic mastery and a little finesse to keep viewers on the edge of their seats. What it offers instead is a crude, unimaginative, suspenseless adventure whose tension comes mainly from deciding which of its three main characters will prove most unlikeable in the end.

Michelle Dockery (“Downton Abbey,” “The Gentlemen”) plays Madolyn Harris, a deputy U.S. marshal who escorts a fugitive-turned-informant named Winston (Topher Grace) — who never gives a last name, not even in the press notes – returning to civilization from his hiding place in a remote Alaskan town. Eager to prove herself after a traumatic incident with a former witness, Madolyn vows to carry out her responsibilities by the book, despite Winston’s endless stream of disruptive jokes. But when their transport arrives, not only is it a rickety cargo plane with only three seats, but it’s piloted by Daryl Booth (Wahlberg), whose drawl, tenacious curiosity and blood-stained clothes immediately appear suspects in Madolyn.

Once in the air, Madolyn and Winston discover that Daryl is not who he claims to be, and a fight ensues between the marshal and Winston’s would-be assassin. She manages to subdue him, handcuffing “Daryl” in the plane’s hold, but soon identifies a bigger problem than a homicidal passenger determined to kill her and Winston: how will the three land?

Contacting her superior officer Van Sant (an off-screen Leah Remini), Madolyn recruits another marshal, Hasan (Maaz Ali on the phone, Monib Abhat on-screen), to help her get the plane back on track and , hopefully, on the ground. But when she discovers documents in Daryl’s pockets containing inside information about Winston and herself, Madolyn realizes that someone within her department has been feeding information to the crime lord Winston is supposed to testify against. , and it’s up to her to find out who it is. by the time she managed to land their plane on the nearest tarmac.

While no one could reasonably expect Gibson to take Wahlberg, Dockery, and Grace into the air and shoot this thriller mostly in real time, even in roughly authentic conditions, the film’s most egregious detail is how It all seems wrong. And that’s before the characters even get on the plane. Two long shots, one of a snow-covered Alaskan hotel and the other, of the runway on which they take off, look terribly unrealistic. (Don’t even get me started on the moose that appears in Winston’s hotel window.)

The filmmakers reportedly shot the aerial sequences using The Volume, the state-of-the-art soundstage that produces (supposedly) photorealistic backgrounds, but Gibson seems overwhelmed by the technology, and the end result is less convincing than one of the landscapes painted that might have been used in the “Air America” ​​era. Worse, it barely defines – much less explores – the spatial geography inside the cockpit, so that every tracking shot or zoom used to capture the action feels more obligatory than useful.

That said, what appears to have been on the page for Gibson and his actors is both overwritten and emotionally anemic. Madolyn, Winston, and Daryl are all “types” more than actual characters, each tying up their expository stories with deadpan one-liners that are never, ever funny. This “humor break” in the script ends up feeling like Dockery, Grace, and Wahlberg are playing their roles rather than inhabiting them, and as a result, the few actual quiet moments feel uncomfortably stuffy – like no one else, of course. less. of all Gibsons, knew what to do to bring them to life. To say that literally everyone in the film is (or thinks they are) a comedian isn’t exactly an exaggeration, but their pirated material causes far more damage than any of the weapons that change hands during its running time.

Casting Dockery as Madolyn is an admirably unconventional choice, but there are simply too many actresses better suited to the role than her, and she always seems to be struggling to convince the audience that she is that U.S. Marshal bruised but tough. Presumably the Cobie Smulders and Emily Van Camps of the industry, to name just two, were otherwise occupied with more interesting opportunities or would have simply refused to work with Gibson, even though his reputation has been semi-rehabilitated . But once again, the storyline does Dockery a disservice, and for better or worse, she fails to convince that there is a better reason than professional incompetence as a peace officer for in which Madolyn ignores Daryl repeatedly – at her peril – in a space where it would take less than two hours. seconds for a complete investigation.

Wahlberg seems to relish his chance to play the kind of over-the-top villain that action movies mostly abandoned after the 1990s, but that doesn’t mean he delivers an effective performance. Even her baldness feels like she’s overcompensating for something, and unfortunately, it’s clear what it is: a believable motivation. On the other hand, Grace has played this kind of quick-witted milquetoast so often that her casting must have seemed like a coup for the production, but her skills are unfortunately washed away by the fire hose of ‘l ‘humor’ of the film.

If one is forced to draw an inextricable correlation between art and artist, there are many reasons why viewers avoid Mel Gibson’s new works. But the strongest part of this particular case is that it is artistically devoid – devoid of suspense, style or even a rudimentary grasp of technique. In this case, Lionsgate’s marketing campaign for “Flight Risk” might be a blessing in disguise, as it might be better for the film’s commercial prospects to not have it associated with its name, but it’s almost certainly better for his career than for his name. not be associated with this film.