So far over the top, but fun, Flight Risk is a guilty pleasure.
It is all about carrying a government witness across hostile terrain to testify against a mob boss when everything that could possibly go wrong does.
Madolyn Harris (Michelle Dockery) is a Deputy U.S. Marshal.
She is tasked with escorting crooked, scared, chatterbox accountant turned informant Winston (Topher Grace) from Alaska to New York.
For Harris, who has been a Marshal for almost eight years, it is her first field job for quite some time.
That is because she had been assigned a desk job after a previous case went skewwhiff.
The problem is that this one looks like going down the same path.
That’s because the pilot of the small prop plane flying Harris and a shackled Winston to Anchorage is not the real deal.
Instead, he (Mark Wahlberg) is a former prisoner, a hitman the mob boss has engaged to ensure Winston never makes it to court.
He is cocky and very dangerous.
Further, it becomes a question of who agent Harris can trust and whether she and Winston can get out of their invidious predicament alive.
Most of the action takes place in the sky, from where, more than once, the plane looks like crashing, resulting in a fiery end for all.
Oh boy, is this corny and preposterous, but – and fortunately there is a but – the death-defying action is what saves it.
The screenplay for the comedic thriller is the work of first-time writer Jared Rosenberg.
It was sitting on the Black List of most likely material yet produced for four years before director Mel Gibson (Hacksaw Ridge) picked it up.
And, despite the clunky dialogue and questionable acting, it is entertaining.
Topher Grace is deliberately irritating with his non-stop patter.
Mark Wahlberg milks a wide-eyed, deranged persona for all it is worth and then some. It’s his eyes that make it so.
Michelle Dockery assumes the role of the flawed heroine with determination and drive.
Often, it is the discombobulated voices on the satellite phone, which her character Harris has with her, that appear particularly wooden.
Flight Risk is no Con Air (1997). Rather, it is likely to extract more than a few groans as well as the odd chuckle, but I remained alert to the next twist.
Mel Gibson is intent on playing along and playing it all up. Given the ludicrous material, it was the right approach.
Rated M, Flight Risk scores a 6 out of 10.
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