ROBERT Zemeckis’ film “Flight” proposes that rolling an airliner into inverted flight will cure the deleterious effect of a jammed elevator. It didn’t for Alaska Airlines flight 261, lost to an analogous maintenance malfunction.

To get that part of this review right, I invited a friend with over 7000 hours flying heavy and high-performance military aircraft to see the film and provide technical advice. His comment was succinct. “Bullshit!”, as all on board flight 261 learned.

Indeed, the crash is merely a conduit to the film’s real purpose, following airline captain “Whip” Whittaker (Denzel Washington) on a different kind of flight, from the personal reality of substance addictions following divorce and separation from his teenaged son. The film follows Whip as he avoids acknowledging his addictions – for cocaine as well as booze. AA doesn’t work for him.

John Gatins’ screenplay tries hard to deliver a message about how addictions blight lives other than just the addict’s. But its ability to hold our interest rather tapers off when Whip takes that first drink after promising to abstain. That recidivism tells us how the film will end nearly 100 minutes later. Even Washington’s fine performance has difficulty easing that burden while waiting.

 At Capital 6; Hoyts and Limelight