A desk agent with the US Marshal Service, Deputy Madelyn Harris (played by Michelle Dockery), is back in the field for the first time in years escorting a key witness in a high profile case. Once she secures Winston (Topher Grace), the informant who’s trying to hide in the Fairbanks area of Alaska, they board a private flight en route to Anchorage. The pilot eventually jumps in the plane, introduces himself as Daryl Booth (Mark Wahlberg), and the three head for Alaska’s most populous city. About 15 minutes into the trip, it comes out that Booth has been hired to silence Winston before he can testify, causing immediate chaos 3,000 feet in the air. After Booth is tied up, Agent Harris realizes the radio is down so she’s forced to use her government-issued sat phone to call for help, not only in order to complete her mission but also just to keep the plane in the air.
Wahlberg plays the psychotic hitman role with perfect flair. His range of emotion — and delivery — creates a sense of unpredictability for the audience, something desperately needed when 95% of the movie takes place in one location. Conversely, Grace and Dockery lack any measure of dynamic engagement.
They’re not bad, don’t get me wrong, but those roles could’ve been better served with a little more time and patience in casting. It’s almost as if the casting agent was a huge fan of Downton Abbey and That 70’s Show and that was enough. Dockery just doesn’t connect during the intense, emotional close-ups and Grace doesn’t strike the chord that screenwriter Jared Rosenberg was going for with that character.
Director Mel Gibson does a good job in making sure the audience feels the intensity of each situation. But, like every positive, there’s a negative. Gibson also elects to use more than a few long holds on Wahlberg, most of which seem unnecessary, almost as if he needed to stretch in order to hit that 91-minute run time.
At the end of the day, FLIGHT RISK features a performance by Wahlberg you would classify as “fun,” some intense situations and an interesting setting. Other than that, it’s a very average movie. If you like the action genre but want to wait for streaming, nobody’s going to be mad about it.
JKG SCORE: 4.5
Untitled Film Project 