FILM REVIEW: NON-STOP

Bill Marks (Liam Neeson) in Non-Stop.

Flight fight

By John Esther

Bill Marks (Liam Neeson) is a guy who starts the day with some booze mixed in with his coffee. You can tell he is sad by the way he carries himself, his lack of grooming and just his general disposition toward other people – in person or on the phone. He not the sort of person you want to be around and you certainly would not like him to be in charge of many lives.

However, as a U.S. Marshall who travels the skyways protecting passengers from terrorists, he is just that. Bill can carry a gun on a plane and he can arrest people, too. Apparently, torture is acceptable for Bill as well. The fact Bill is afraid of the ascension of planes from terra firma only lowers ones confidence in him. Fortunately, the woman next to him, Jen (Julianne Moore), is there to comfort Bill on their way to London.

Of course, the comfort is short lived as Bill starts receiving text messages from an anonymous source who says he will kill a passenger on Bill's plane every 20 minutes until a ransom is paid.

As passengers start to die, doubts, as well as suspicions about Bill’s ability to perform his duties rise while the survivor of the passengers on the plane descends. Bill is being framed, but who can or will believe him? All clues point to the safety guy as the actuall terrorist.

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, Non-Stop plays itself out in unspectacular fashion. While many of the passengers suspect Bill, we the audience know he is innocent, so we are going to go right on rooting for our protagonist until he redeems himself in front of the rest of the world. Along the way, one must overlook a lot of implausibility before enduring an absurd explanation from the really bad guy in the film.