At The Movies: Mel Gibson-directed Alaska thriller Flight Risk fails to get off the ground

Flight Risk (NC16)

91 minutes, now showing
★★☆☆☆

The story: United States Marshal Madolyn Harris (Michelle Dockery) has to escort mob mafia informant Winston (Topher Grace) from Alaska back to New York, where he can serve as a witness for the prosecution at the trial of his former boss. The man piloting their single-engine plane across the frozen wilderness is Daryl (Mark Wahlberg). During the flight, an emergency occurs that puts everyone’s life in danger.

It is never a good thing when a thriller designed to clock in at a taut 91 minutes feels longer. Director Mel Gibson, the helmer of harrowing rides such as World War II biopic Hacksaw Ridge (2016) and historical drama Apocalypto (2006), cannot seem to bring the same energy to Jared Rosenberg’s uninspired screenplay.

While veteran film-maker and actor Gibson, 69, handles the opening comedy well, with Madolyn barking orders at the spineless mob accountant Winston, this lighter tone vanishes once the action intensifies.

Dockery is best known for her work in the English period drama Downton Abbey (2010 to 2015), in which she played Lady Mary Crawley in over 50 episodes.

Seeing her as a no-nonsense American law enforcement officer is fun, an experience improved by the committed way she embodies the part, instead of doing a jokey impression of a tough cop from a TV show.

Wahlberg, an actor not known for his range, settles into the rough-around-the-edges, working-man persona that is his comfort zone and stays that way for the rest of the movie.

As their tiny plane buzzes over the vast Alaskan wilderness, the radio proves to be their only lifeline, but not all the voices that come through can be trusted.

As tropes go, the disembodied voice piped into a claustrophobic space is fairly standard, but essential to keep the story going. Radios, mobile phones and landlines offer hope and sometimes crushing despair in one-room thrillers The Guilty (2021), The Wall (2017) and Buried (2010), especially when the unseen speakers reveal facts that turn everything on its head.

The radio in Flight Risk serves roughly the same function, but its role in affecting the action has been greatly reduced in favour of in-cabin physical action.

The story relies too heavily on the characters making improbable mistakes, making it increasingly difficult to maintain engagement despite the claustrophobic setting. By the second or third slip-up, it becomes hard to care.

Hot take: This airborne thriller never quite takes off, weighed down by predictable plot turns and squandered potential.