Rating of
3/4
Quite suspensful, but kinda short
The M.O.W. - wrote on 08/02/08
Hotel worker, "Lisa" (Rachel McAdams) hates flying, but that fear is nothing like the one she is about to experience.
While in line waiting to check in at the "Fresh Air" (what a dumb name huh?) desk, she meets "Jackson" (Cillian Murphy). They bump into each other a little later on at the airport bar, and have a flirtatious conversation. They bump into each other yet again on the plane, where they have neighboring seats. But that is where the nice story ends.
He informs her that she must do a task for him, or her father (Brian Cox) will be killed by one of his men waiting for the order to shoot just outside his home. To complicate things, her decision on doing the task will also determine if a high-profile guest (Jack Scalia) who will be checking in at the hotel she works at in Miami with his family.
She tries to do whatever she can in the close quarters of the jet-liner, but "Jackson" is always one step ahead of her.
Now, she must do whatever it takes to escape her captor, while saving that high-profile hotel client and her father.
There are a lot of realistic things in this movie: rude passengers who want what they want and only what they want, cheerful flight attendants and a passenger that so annoys you that the only way to not kill them is act pleasant as you try to get away from him or her. On the other hand, there are some things that are not very realistic like how could nobody on the plane know there is a problem between "Lisa" and the man who is essentially her captor?
Because of the short length of the movie (approximately 85 minutes) the action and suspense comes flying at you. And the real good performances from the co-stars help you believe in the suspense.
The two main characters are well written and performed. You instantly like her, and you slowly begin to hate him, causing you to cheer her. What really enhances the tension is something happened in her past, which she explains to her captor, that makes her more scared of him as she has flashbacks to that previous incident.
Because of the length of the movie, everything is pretty rushed. Therefore there are some problems with the movie. One of which is that the supporting characters have little to no development. You also get very little time to catch your breath between action sequences. You also have to deal with a poorly presented secondary plot evolving around the high-profile hotel guest.
The climax of the movie is pretty weak. It also has very little to do with what "Lisa" went through during the story.
If you ask me, this could be a fairly good choice next time you go to your local video rental place.
