On A Wing And A Prayer Review - Flails then Fails
Doug (Dennis Quaid) pulls his brother along for the flying class because he wants to learn how to do it. The brothers participate a barbecue competition after landing safely and triumph handily. Life seems to be perfect as they celebrate the victory with their family. Up until Doug receives a call in the middle of the night informing him that his brother has passed away. Doug starts to slide after being struck by grief. His wife (Heather Graham) attempts to calm him down, but the stress of being a father and the loss are wearing on him. When the family's pilot unexpectedly passes away while the group is in flight, Doug is forced to deal with his trauma more quickly than he anticipates. Doug is tasked with making a safe landing when air traffic control sends in a specialist (Jesse Metcalfe).
Character development that the plot does not require takes up the most of the first half of the movie. It can be challenging to criticise certain aspects of movies based on true stories, yet On a Wing and a Prayer frequently returns to the same idea. Although grieving and losing faith in a higher force can be fascinating ideas to consider, the movie takes everything literally and provides no complexity. Even the plot's mechanics are unnecessary.
Two young people are one of three groups of characters who are following the movie's events in a side story. A consultant is brought in by air traffic control to instruct Quaid on how to operate the aircraft. Despite the fact that they are already in touch, the consultant's wife calls Quaid while they are both in the same room. The use of cell phones as a plot device is superfluous and keeps coming back. There are no repercussions for either of the two people who are warned about the dangers of using cell phones in aeroplane surroundings. Why then did they include that twice in the film?
On a Wing and a Prayer will undoubtedly find an audience and honours a guy who accomplished the unthinkable, but as a viewing experience, it falls short on every level. A triple split screen shows each wheel releasing and touching the tarmac as Quaid lands the aircraft. Sadly, that sequence is the only one in the movie where the use of visual language draws attention.
Two young people are one of three groups of characters who are following the movie's events in a side story. A consultant is brought in by air traffic control to instruct Quaid on how to operate the aircraft. Despite the fact that they are already in touch, the consultant's wife calls Quaid while they are both in the same room. The use of cell phones as a plot device is superfluous and keeps coming back. There are no repercussions for either of the two people who are warned about the dangers of using cell phones in aeroplane surroundings. Why then did they include that twice in the film?
On a Wing and a Prayer will undoubtedly find an audience and honours a guy who accomplished the unthinkable, but as a viewing experience, it falls short on every level. A triple split screen shows each wheel releasing and touching the tarmac as Quaid lands the aircraft. Sadly, that sequence is the only one in the movie where the use of visual language draws attention.