Jodie Foster stars in Buena Vista’s Flightplan, Copyright 2005

Many people believe that “Flightplan” and “Red-Eye” are similar films; after all, each takes place thousands of feet in the air on a plane where there is really no escape from someone who is after you. However, each film utilizes these conditions in very different ways thereby providing very different kinds of thrills. In “Red-Eye,” you know exactly where the bad guy is and exactly what he plans to do, the thrill come as we watch the cat and mouse dance between him and his victim. In “Flightplan,” people and situations are far less clear and many of the thrills come from not knowing what is going on.

Kyle (Jodie Foster), is the recently widowed mother of a young girl named Julie (Marlene Lawston). Kyle and Julia are flying from Berlin to New York, the deceased’s coffin on board as well. The plane they are flying on, one of the biggest ever built, has been designed by Kyle herself who certainly knows every inch of it. Shortly after the flight takes off, Kyle falls asleep, waking some time later to find that her daughter is missing. Here begins the real heart of the story as a distraught parent searches frantically for her child in an area in which there should be no way out. “Where is Julia? How could she disappear from a plane thousands of miles in the air?” These are the questions going through Kyle’s mind and ours as we journey through this film.

“Flightplan” is one of those edge-of-your-seat thrillers that keeps you guessing and gasping on the way through. I can’t say the film is claustrophobic, because the plane is enormous. Its an interesting set up – the plane is large enough to believe a child could surely get lost in it and yet the space is confined so surely finding her can’t be that difficult! Interesting plot devices and twists and turns, however, keep the search going and keep the audience absorbed – is Julia really missing, has her mother perhaps lost her mind with grief, was Julia ever really there to begin with? Jodie Foster’s acting is so good that you truly want to learn the answers to these questions and find out what is really going on.

In a Hitchcock-like film such as this, there is a lot of tension and suspense, most of which makes up for any holes in the plot. So sit back, enjoy the ride, and don’t worry too much if in the end, it doesn’t make perfect.

Rated PG-13 for violence and some intense plot material. Running Time 138 minutes