Flightplan (2005)

There is a saying that all of the original stories have been told and that every story we hear now is merely a retelling of one of those original gems.

That is certainly true in Hollywood.

Take Flightplan, starring Jodi Foster. Flightplan is a direct, updated copy of the Hitchcock classic The Lady Vanishes. In Flightplan, Foster plays the distressed airplan designer, Kyle, who wakes up on a long overseas flight to find that her child is missing. In The Lady Vanishes, made in 1938, Margaret Lockwood wakes up on a train to find her recent acquaintence, Miss Froy, suddenly missing.

Both women go through the riggers of trying to convince the other passengers that someone is missing in a place where no one can hide (plane/train). In both cases they are convinced there never was the missing person and in both cases the women, unable to believe the missing person was imaginery, enlists the help of a male to assist them. In both films, a window seat plays a pivotal point in the storyline and in both films the potential plots teeter on the brink of complete unbelievability.

In The Lady Vanishes, Hitchcock's style hides the potential plot missteps. In Flightplan, the pure energy of Foster's performance along with Sean Bean's compassionate portrayal as the pilot and Peter Sarsgaard as Air Marshal Carson keep us distracted from the pitfalls of the flimsy storyline.

In the end, both films are enjoyable and both films are worth watching. If you have enough time in your day, do what my daughter and I did and watch them back to back. Then you'll really see that what was once original, is original no more.