Dependence Robert Zemeckis’ new film opens with a long, erotic morning awakening scene, where a naked girl jumps around the sleeping hero-pilot Washington, captured on camera from all sides. It’s obvious that the movie will be great! When the camera, admiring the girl, begins to gradually take the angle to the side, bringing the main character, famously pumping stimulant drugs after drinking, into close-up, and at all begins to become more interesting.
The idea of conscience, honesty, and the difficulties of addiction comes to the fore acutely and suddenly. A very long prologue (which after a bright erotic introduction) is dedicated to a terrible plane crash and a brave pilot who saved a huge number of lives. Probably the best pilot ever. However, suffering from a strong craving for alcohol. Unfortunately, “drinking talent” is not uncommon, both in life and in cinema. So turn to originality, drawing something new from Zemeckis does not work.
But Denzel Washington tries with all his might, surpassing the abundance of his previous characters, playing with emotions, twitching facial expressions, eyes, producing miracles of a magnificent acting presentation of a very controversial and interesting protagonist, at the same time begging for an Oscar. One more. Addiction to alcohol, which is impossible to overcome, begins to destroy the life of even such an experienced and talented person as the main character of the story. To the destruction of personality, Zemeckis approaches from all sides, from divorce and loss of family, to the loss of friends and complete loneliness.
Another prominent theme of the film is lies. Lies to others, self-deception, all this surrounds the main character inside and outside. A collection of contradictions and false beliefs that somehow move life, allowing you to survive through deception. And after all, the final heat of passions can be approached from a very different viewpoint. Someone will find, like a hero, the only salvation and liberation from alcoholism in the truth, someone will decide that it was better to lie for salvation, because all the circumstances for the culminating lie so successfully coincided.
Due to the abundance of views on the situation and the general contradiction, both the main character and many scenes of the film, the director manages to achieve proper dynamics and excellent emotional tension. The plot of the picture, despite the plot predictability, and even the obviousness of the actions of the main character, is built brilliantly on the visual film language, without sliding into a documentary set of facts, meetings and mediocre detective investigation.
Zemeckis tells the story of a talented alcoholic pilot from the most fascinating angle, immersing the viewer entirely in his work. Beginning with a crash and an accident, and then on, according to Hitchcock’s laws of thriller, only escalating the tension even more and even stronger. Although such a thriller film, of course, can not be called. But the strong, intense and emotional drama was just brilliant.
“The Crew” powerfully returns to the feature film Robert Zemeckis, who made a tense drama very talented and cinematic, in all the glory of the hard R rating, not going to censorship and concessions, but firmly walking through the raised topics and making Washington play even more expressively than before. And the charismatic John Goodman, who appears for a couple of episodes, who is always on the list, is simply able to steal the entire film for himself, remembering in this picture even brighter and cooler than all the other characters. A brilliant film that does not leave indifferent and completely immerses in the depths of the problems involved.
8 out of 10
Original