OPENS APRIL 9, CERT 15, 97 MINS Based on memoirs written by the two subjects themselves, Blind Flight unfolds what happened during the four-and-a-half years that Northern Ireland-reared schoolteacher Brian Keenan (Ian Hart) and English reporter John McCarthy (Linus Roache) were held as prisoners by a Lebanese terrorist cell. That means not a whole helluva lot happens at all, apart from the two men, initially wary of each other, becoming the closest of friends, enduring psychological and physical torture by their captors before being released. But don't expect The Shawshank Redemption meets Midnight Express, because Blind Flight is a much quieter, sober-sided affair. Ultimately, its message is one of forgiveness and a tribute to the endurance of the human spirit?all the usual humanist guff you'd find on a Sunday night on BBC1. But both leads give fine performances here?Hart and Roache have played opposite each other before and have great on-screen chemistry. Good supporting turns also help make this a consistently watchable if never more than middling experience.
OPENS APRIL 9, CERT 15, 97 MINS
Based on memoirs written by the two subjects themselves, Blind Flight unfolds what happened during the four-and-a-half years that Northern Ireland-reared schoolteacher Brian Keenan (Ian Hart) and English reporter John McCarthy (Linus Roache) were held as prisoners by a Lebanese terrorist cell. That means not a whole helluva lot happens at all, apart from the two men, initially wary of each other, becoming the closest of friends, enduring psychological and physical torture by their captors before being released. But don’t expect The Shawshank Redemption meets Midnight Express, because Blind Flight is a much quieter, sober-sided affair. Ultimately, its message is one of forgiveness and a tribute to the endurance of the human spirit?all the usual humanist guff you’d find on a Sunday night on BBC1. But both leads give fine performances here?Hart and Roache have played opposite each other before and have great on-screen chemistry. Good supporting turns also help make this a consistently watchable if never more than middling experience.
