Flying Blind

Though the USA format version of this British film and DVD is not yet available, the film could and should be seen on video on demand until the DVD is available for purchase. At this particular time in our history this story is a healthy look at the misunderstandings between the Muslims and non-Muslims and hopefully will hold a mirror to society to reexamine prejudice and misplaced fear and suspicion. Filmed in Bristol, England by director Katarzyna Klimkiewicz and based on a screenplay by Caroline Harrington, Bruce McLeod and Naomi Wallace, it is a rather quiet but powerful indictment against suspicion as played out in a love story.

Frankie (Helen McCrory), an attractive middle-aged woman, is a successful aerospace engineer designing drones for the British military. She also lectures at Bristol University where she meets a French-Algerian student Kahil (the immensely promising French Algerian actor Najib Oudghiri) They begin an affair and Frankie swiftly becomes obsessed with her young lover but after discovering, by accident, that he is a part-time taxi driver, she realizes that she doesn't really know Kahil, his past, or where his loyalties lie. The sweet but somewhat mysterious Kahil has friends who seem to be shady characters (except for his best friend Malik - Sheriff Eltayeb), his body carries the signs of torture, and he's lied about his student status. Frankie works in a sensitive field and becomes increasingly suspicious of Kahil's intentions towards her, and after MI5 informs her Kahil is a 'person of interest', she finds that she can't give him up so easily and starts to spy on him. She spies through his Internet history and rifles through a bag that may or may not be his. At the same time, Frankie's father Victor (Kenneth Cranham), the police and her work superiors begin to monitor her activities. Klimkiewicz ratchets up the tension and keeps us guessing as to Kahil's allegiances, while Frankie is, in turn, betrayed. Her protective father has his own doubts about Kahil and acts on them with devastating consequences. The ending is blisteringly pathetic for all concerned.

Though there are some questionable discrepancies in the script (such as how a highflying career woman is so easily derailed, emotionally and physically, by a sexual relationship with a younger man), but the acting and direction are so fine that these minor flaws become superfluous in the end. This is first and foremost a love story set in our perilous times and offers a lesson in understanding the manifestations of suspicion on interpersonal relationships.

Grady Harp

Attempt all things to all people but delivers poorly Does not succeed as a a thriller as action in low key and lacking any suspense and as a political observation is very shallow and not explored as could have been Lacking pace and subtlety with no sense of direction by the director As a tourist shot of Bristol works but nothing more McCrory acts ok in an unusual broody but not entirely convincing way.

As a Bristolian can I just get something out the way ,to use a Bristol city fc flag as your curtains in the spiritual home of Bristol rovers fc (east I'll) is very unlikely at least and verging on ridiculous at most ...if you cherished your windows that is .....and I'm a city fan . Really enjoyed this tense psycho/sexual thriller with great actors in a very believable situation ,there was an erotic scene that was reminiscent from nine and a half weeks but in no way did that detract from the overall sense of chemistry between the lead parts . As always there are some ridiculous comments written here about this film which was my main inspiration to write my own review....well tat and the Bristol city flag.give it a chance definitely worth a watch

Flying Blind is a thoroughly enjoyable, thought provoking, political essay on post 9/11 tensions generally shared in the West. The film does a wonderful job exposing the subtleties with regard to the nuances of prejudice often extended to persons of Arab descent. Add to that mix, the intelligent insertion of sexual tension and the film's star Helen McCrory. McCrory confidently exhibits her ability to carry the film and her presence(she is smashing!)and courage assure that you come away from this film thoroughly entertained and informed. This film should be seen by a wider audience. But then again, I'm somewhat prejudiced when reviewing Helen McCrory's work, as I'm usually fond of most everything she does.

Lawrence Forde

"Flying Blind" plays like an inverted "Basic Instinct": the plot; high-stakes intrigue and sex are still there, but the male/female dynamic has been reversed. The core relationship has been tweaked to encompass both a greater age gap as well as an inter-racial dynamic, while the central question is now not 'did SHE do it?' but 'is HE a terrorist?'. It sounds like a recipe for disaster, but as a stand-alone thriller that does its best to raise the issue of military drone strikes whilst keeping away from stereotypes, there is enough of a kick to its story and enough ambiguity surrounding its central question of whether a key character is who they say they are to actually rather enjoy it.

Helen McCrory plays Frankie: a cold, middle-aged woman who works in the British aerospace industry developing drone technology for a BAE/Lockheed Martin style military defence company. She refuses to suffer fools, and is more than adept at holding her own in conversation when confronted by stern-face chauvinistic military types in full uniform who try to knock it into her that drones are, in fact, "remotely piloted air systems". She is equally swift to bat away their immense displeasures at the technological advances falling too far behind schedule. In her spare time, she lectures in engineering at a local university - when a random student asks her of the moral implications of drone production, she merely states that she is "not a philosopher" and is "more interested in flight".

These character traits and outlooks are then essentially challenged for the remainder of the film when a young Muslim student named Kahil (Najib Oudghiri) walks into her life - first, when she locks herself out of her car in the car-park and then when casually out and around in the town centre. He seems polite, even well-spoken, and is a major leap from the men presently in her life: of whom seem to consist of the same suited office-dwelling co-worker and the aforementioned rigid military types. Kahil is, comparatively, quite exotic.

Whether the film has Frankie fall for Kahil too quickly is both arguable as well as beside the point - a chance meeting and a kebab later, we find our heroine chasing after him, all gooey and lovey, and far from the icy battle-axe she was in earlier scenes. Indeed, it isn't long before the two are all over one another - Frankie supposedly liberated from her stressful desk-job and demanding peers, and Kahil merely content with the basic satisfaction of the sex.

It is that stalwart Kenneth Cranham, playing Frankie's dad, whom the film allows to clunk into the storyline the correlation between Kahil's ethnicity (he is Algerian) and the nature of Frankie's work (designing drones, which kill hundreds of Muslims every year in conflict). We do not believe for a second that it hadn't occurred to Frankie yet, but what it does is essentially tee up the film's burning core: is Kahil who he says he is, a harmless young Arab man who is able to write poetry who genuinely has feelings for Frankie, or something more sinister merely looking to exploit Frankie?

"Flying Blind" has a great deal of fun with its premise and it is surprising as to how well it works when it is in its absolute zenith. Seemingly a liberal feminist of the boomer generation, Frankie is suddenly plunged into a decision she thought she had answered years ago: does she choose love for a man over a career-path she has always been devoted to if partner-and-job are actually incompatible? Later on, she is placed into even more of an ethical entanglement when she has good reason to alert the police on a suspicion which would almost certainly spell the end of their romance yet save lives.

Indeed, at its core the film is Frankie's being challenged of a pre-existing outlook, that she does not see herself as a "philosopher" who has to think too greatly about what she does and the consequences of what she designs - so much for only being interested in flight. "Flying Blind" will not uproot trees, nor will it especially force its way into the canon of your favourite films, but it is worth seeing.