Flightplan

Kyle Pratt (Jodie Foster) loses much more than her luggage in the aviation pot-boiler Flightplan.

Herald rating: * * *

Kyle Pratt (Jodie Foster) is flying home from Germany to America with her husband, David, and daughter, Julia (Marlene Lawston). Julia is in the seat beside her. David is in the hold, in a coffin.

Drained, Kyle falls asleep. When she wakes, Julia is gone.

Kyle looks around the plane, carefully, then in panic. She believes Julia has been kidnapped. She wonders who her enemies are, why they would do such a thing. And how could they pull off the crime on a plane?

The crew is puzzled, because Julia's name isn't on the passenger list and there's no record of her at Munich airport. No one can find a boarding pass or backpack. Did she get on the plane?

They search every nook and cranny and the scriptwriters have cleverly factored in the plot device that Kyle, back in Germany, was a jet propulsion engineer who designed this exact same plane.

The captain (Sean Bean) is helpful, considerate. The air marshal (Peter Sarsgaard) is doing all he can to calm and unravel the situation. Until they get a message from Munich saying that Julia was killed with her father. So why did we see her on the plane? For that matter, why did we see Kyle talking to David after his death.

There is an answer, of course, but I won't spoil it for those who'll spend a mildly entertained Saturday night with this pot-boiler. You'll enjoy the high production values but you'll have to overlook the ridiculous twists in the plot and another bout of Foster, ranging from wooden to over-acting in reprising her Panic Room role as a mother defending her child.

The DVD explains the movie was based on the in-flight disappearance of a businessman's son. In that version terrorists hijacked the plane but that plot wasn't going to fly with US audiences after September 11.

In his first Hollywood outing, German director Robert Schwentke offers a detailed feature describing a behind-the-scenes tour of a 747, moves on to show how the vast set was built and finishes with Foster among the mock cabling, struts, holds and cameras and even catches her occasional expression.

* DVD, video rental today