Highly Overrated But Still Good

Better Late Then Never

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

A bit of a fantasy but moderately entertaining. Had some poignant moments which helped it along a bit.

At 1st, I was enjoying it to some point, and then, things started to go downhill, when we reached the part of stereotyping Arabs, I told myself "that's it, I'm bouncing" but since I already paid for this nonsense, I forced myself to finish it, I went to sleep afterwards contemplating about my choices in life, boy was it a fun night...

Kyle Pratt is an American avionics engineer living in Berlin but after her husband commits suicide she decides to return to the States with her young daughter. As it is a night flight they both fall asleep shortly after take-off but when she wakes up her daughter is nowhere to be seen. She searches the length of the cabin before approaching the cabin crew; they look but can't find her either. Kyle now starts to panic and demands to see the captain. As she pounds on the flight-deck door she is restrained by Carson, the flight's air marshal. Once she has calmed down a bit the captain sees her and agrees to a more thorough search of the aircraft. Once again she isn't found and more confusingly nobody remembers seeing her and she isn't on the passenger manifest… is there a conspiracy or is Kyle delusional? Whatever the reason Kyle is determined to search other areas of the plane and to do that she will have to get away from Carson and use her knowledge of the plane's electronic systems.This is a film that stands or falls on whether one can suspend your disbelief as various unlikely events take place. For the most part it succeeds thanks to Jodie Foster's portrayal of Kyle; it is hard not to believe in her character as her sense of panic seems very real. As the story progresses the more we need to suspend our disbelief… would nobody remember seeing a child sitting near them, once she started behaving in an apparently irrational manner would she really be allowed to roam around the aircraft and in these security conscious times would it really be possible to access the plane's electronic systems via a hatchway in the toilet? Thankfully the pace is such that I didn't dwell on most these questions until after the film was over. The story holds together well until we learn the truth about the child's disappearance; then it becomes rather melodramatic with a far-fetched plot whereby the villain is setting her up to look like a terrorist who is demanding millions not to blow up the plane! Overall though I'd say this is decent enough if you want a gripping thriller but if you can't ignore the lack of realism it is best avoided unless you want some unintended laughs.

Kyle Pratt (Jodie Foster) is an aviation engineer. Her husband dies in Berlin falling off a building. Then she's going back to New York with his casket and her daughter on a plane she helped designed. After falling asleep, she finds her daughter missing. The crew searches frantically, but eventually doubts arises, and she's seen as delusional.There is a good element of Hitchcockian mystery, and psychological thriller. For the first half, the movie is building up to a great mystery. Director Robert Schwentke creates a moody atmosphere, but it all falls apart as the truth is revealed. It turns into an action movie, but the convoluted explanation is a wrench in the whole machinery.