By Charles Layton

This is for certain: Flight will never, ever be offered as one of your movie options on a commercial airplane.

Before I went to see it this week, I had thought, from what I’d heard by word of mouth, that it was all about a plane crash. What I’d also heard was that the crash scene was seat-gripping, unforgettable and extremely aerophobia-inducing. And it is all of that. But once the crash is out of the way, early on, Flight becomes a film about substance addiction. And a good one.

It’s one of those movies like Cast Away and Fearless and The Flight of the Phoenix (the 1965 one, with James Steward), in which you get a plane crash and then you get, as the body of the story, a drama about the aftermath of that crash. The title carries a double meaning, signifying the airplane flight but, more importantly, the pilot’s denial of his dependency.

You want a quality rating for the movie? OK, as plane crash movies go, it is better than Fearless but maybe not quite as good as those other two I just mentioned. And as substance addiction movies go, it isn’t quite as good as The Days of Wine and Roses, but it’s better than Leaving Las Vegas.

Some critics had a problem with how the movie ended, but that didn’t bother me. In fact, I was moved by the ending.

Denzel Washington, as the alcoholic, coke-snorting airline pilot, is just superb. He is totally in the role and totally believable. He carries the film. Washington is one of a handful of contemporary lead male actors – along with George Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Tom Hanks, Matt Damon and Daniel Day-Lewis – whose films I try never to miss. But members of his supporting cast also provided wonderful performances, especially Kelly Reilly as the pilot’s heroin-addicted girlfriend. And it was somebody’s act of casting genius to have John Goodman play Washington’s flamboyant cocaine dealer. Goodman provides the film’s only comedy relief, although it is black comedy.

Another notable virtue of this movie is the music soundtrack – reminiscent of The Big Chill’s great soundtrack.

Here is one of the songs, “Feelin’ Alright” by Joe Cocker.