While many were divided over the virtues of Robert Zemeckis’ Flight—some, including myself, found it as unfortunately overlooked as The Grey while others thought far less of it—all seemed to agree that the most captivating moments of the entire film occur in one standalone scene where the Denzel Washington character, Whip, is confronted with his new lady friend in a hospital stairwell by our old friend James Badge Dale, who plays an unnamed cancer patient.
In many ways this scene plays out like a complete non sequitur, having little to do with the plot as we know it and introducing a character that we see only briefly in the entire film. It’s one scene that demonstrates the way the movie seeks to defy our expectation of the hero narrative this movie seems like it could veer towards. And it hinges on this odd appearance by Dale, who seems simultaneously a little batty but perhaps possessing a wisdom confronting your own mortality can provide, threatening but provocative. The movie then shifts from a story about a man and his career to a man dealing with his destructive tendencies and dealing with death in a direct way. This encounter puts that idea in the audience’s heads with a subtle grace. Dale apparently dropped a bunch of weight for what amounted to one day of work and one film scene, but his dedication made quite the impact.
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