Blind Flight

Based on the respective autobiographies of John McCarthy and Brian Keenan, Blind Flight traces the relationship between the two hostages, held captive in Beirut in the latter 1980s. Imprisoned for some five years by terrorists, the pair shared various cramped living spaces for some four and half of those years, leading them to develop a strong bond, despite their wildly different backgrounds. Indeed, early on in the film, it appears as though the cynical Belfast academic Keenan (Ian Hart) has about as much chance as bonding with the crusading, idealistic English journalist, McCarthy (Roache), as a snow ball has of living out a happy retirement in the Sahara.

And therein lies the problem with Blind Flight: once the premise has been established, there's never any real attempt by the filmmakers to jack up the levels of intensity required to make it essential viewing. True, both Roache and Hart supply good performances, articulating the anger, frustration and outrage at the predicament they find themselves in. But that's about it. We never really get inside the characters or understand what drove them to survive such a difficult imprisonment. In theory, a pared down summarised version of events may appear to be haunting, but it lacks edge and spark. Similarly uneven is the attitude of their captors. Oscillating wildly between believable characters and caricatures of pure evil whose cause is never outlined, there's a real inconsistency which is difficult to shake. Since Keenan co-wrote the screenplay and McCarthy was deeply involved as a script supervisor perhaps that's precisely the way both men saw things. If so, it's proof that intensely emotional stories don't always make for great cinema.