Ground Control
Movie Review
1998 | PG-13
Reviewed November 5, 2007
The Netflix synopsis sounds hilariously awful: “In the stressful business of air traffic control, Jack Harris (Keifer Sutherland) was the best—until a crash ended his career. Haunted by the tragedy, Jack struggles to cope. But when a fierce storm cripples the Phoenix airport, he’s called back into action. Now, he must fight his demons to clear his conscience and save the lives of hundreds of people.”
You can taste the badness, can’t you? I sure could. So I was surprised—and maybe just a wee bit disappointed—to find that it wasn’t that bad. In fact, it was actually quite watchable. While not very technically accurate (ye gods, I hope not—if there are really only two overworked electricians scrambling around the Phoenix ground control system, remind me never to fly into that airport), the story manages to be interesting without resorting to cheap gimmicks—the climactic catastrophe involves a mundane lightning strike, while lesser plots would have thrown in a giant conspiracy and a few gun-toting hijackers just for good measure—and touching without overdoing it… much. Sutherland’s character is very likeable, kind of shy and sweet, and he doesn’t overdo the I does have deemonz! thing. Robert Sean Leonard has a fun role as a cocky controller whose schadenfreude sometimes gets the best of him; normally that kind of character gets kicked in the teeth while the “good guy” goes on to glory, but this movie reins in the moral punishment to good effect. The one false note was Kristy Swanson as a “nerd”, the kind who comes in with a buttoned-up sweater and dorky glasses, but whose hair comes down and bad eyesight clears up just in time for the hero to notice how hot she really is. This isn’t a classic, but it’s not a bad way to spend a couple of hours.
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