I went into Flight with slightly unreasonable expectations. The trailers were brilliant, well-edited, and contained number of excellent actors. The movie is, as well, brilliant, well-edited, and full of excellent actors. However, it was also home to some serious issues that make it a tough thing to really love.

Flight tells the story of William “Whip” Whitaker, an alcoholic pilot who, after a night of drinking and illicit substances, crashes a malfunctioning plane through turbulence with minimal casualties. Whip’s blood was drawn at the crash site and it identified alcohol in his system. Now, he has to either face jail time or prove that the plane’s crash was caused solely by its malfunctioning components.

The trailers that aired before the film released advertised a movie that was going to be primarily about this legal battle between a man in the wrong place at the wrong time and a grieving few who wanted revenge on the man who may have damned their loved ones.

Instead, it’s a story about Whip’s alcoholism, as well as the peaks and valleys throughout his attempt to redeem himself for not being able to save everyone.

In retrospect, I suppose I should’ve realized it would’ve been a mighty challenge to have a movie over 2 hours long with only legal bickering about what caused the plane’s dive. That kind of stuff accounts for about 1/3 of the film’s plot.

If you go in without having seen the trailers, I imagine you’ll enjoy Flight for what it is. If you watched the trailers, you’re probably expecting something different. What you’re getting isn’t exactly a substitute, but it’s certainly not bad.

For the most part, I enjoyed the film’s narrative. It has a great mix of the somber and the hilarious, John Goodman’s character, drug dealer Harling Mays being the highlight. The ending seemed slightly unbelievable to me, but the last scene made up for that entirely.

My problem is with a single character, namely, Kelly Reilly’s. She plays Nicole, a drug addict on her way to recovery by the time Whip meets her, and she acts as his foil throughout the movie, showing someone who is overcoming her problems rather than giving in to them.

She’s admirable in that respect, but her introductory series of scenes is spread out between the flight and crash that make up the tensest moments of the film. This draws attention away from the important scene with a bunch of stuff that is not contextualized well and confusing, since she has literally no relation to Whip when we first see her.

It’s a mess of a first act, going between marvelously paced moments on Whip’s side and awkward encounters with drug dealers who refer to their product with the legal term, like calling it ‘crack cocaine’ without being ironic (I’ve watched enough of “The Wire” to know that they refer to all of it as ‘dope’ on most occasions).

Her scenes make sense, but only in retrospect. The role of a foil could’ve been introduced after the traumatic opening which leaves Whip in a hospital bed. During his downtime, we could’ve been introduced to an addict already admitted to the hospital for her addiction. Her scenes wouldn’t take away from what we see with Whip since he would be indisposed and in the same general location as her. The film wouldn’t ask us to piece together scenes that make no sense immediately and don’t improve the film at all.

It’s annoying because she’s quite literally the only character I didn’t like. Don Cheadle plays Whip’s lawyer Hugh Lang, and his straight-laced sense of humor and reserved anger are excellent portrayed. Denzel Washington is a fantastic centerpiece as Whip, and he, in a lot of ways, makes the movie. The slightly outrageous aspect of the ending is more a result of Whip’s writing than any aspect of Denzel’s performance.

The Nicole problem could’ve been so easily fixed, which is probably why I’m as upset about it as I am. I don’t mind that what I expected to see wasn’t what I got necessarily. I’m not upset about the ending. I’m upset that a single character even has the potential to make me think less of the movie now. I still think I’d recommend it, but that’s after some consideration, which is a shame.