On a Wing and a Prayer (PG, 102mins) Directed by Sean McNamara *½
“What? This is insane! I can’t believe all that happened!”
Unfortunately, despite boldly stating within the opening moments that this is a true story based on events from Easter Sunday 2009, the pint-sized tween (Trayce Malachi’s Buggy) who utters these immortal words in the closing stages of On a Wing and a Prayer is right to be incredulous about what’s just unfolded, because he didn’t even exist.
He and his aviation-obsessed neighbour Donna (Raina Grey) Amblin’ Spielberg-style onto the runways at Fort Myers International Airport is just one of a number of fantasies that truly over-eggs “the miracle” of King Air N559DW.
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You’d think 56-year-old pharmacist Doug White (Dennis Quaid) stepping into the breach when the pilot of the twin-engine private plane carrying his family of four became incapacitated would be dramatic and exciting enough to sustain a Sully-esque rollercoaster ride, but no, writer Brian Egeston (Tyler Perry’s House of Payne) and director Sean McNamara (Soul Surfer, Cats & Dogs 3: Paws Unite) go full Roland Emmerich/Wrath-of-God as they throw in a dangerous weather storm, a peanut allergy, strapping tangles and an alcoholic air traffic controller whose career is seemingly hanging by a thread. It all means that this feels closer to Flying High than Airport 1975.
And that’s after they’ve padded out the first half-hour with a barbecue competition, rammed home how Doug’s lost his faith after the death of three of his heroes to heart attacks and demonstrated the White’s “good works” in feeding the local homeless community.
Supplied
Dennis Quaid and Heather Graham play husband and wife Doug and Terri White in On a Wing and a Prayer.
Credit to Quaid for giving good flop sweat, as the stresses of the situation believably take their toll on a man whose only other time behind a yoke was a series of aborted attempts to land a Cessna during a training flight, but he’s let down by an overstuffed plot that tries to mash in as many redemptions and recompilations as it can within in its running time, as well as trotting out every tired faith-based and flight movie cliché.
Norman Greenbaum’s Spirit in the Sky? Check. Reciting The Lord’s Prayer? Present. Some iteration of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah? You betcha.
If that wasn’t enough, we’re firstly told that there’s no way White will be able to pilot the plane – before there’s a massive correction that it’s just like flying a Cessna – Heather Graham plays White’s wife Terri as a kind of saucy (literally, she’s known for her BBQ-enhancing creations) southern sexpot and the admittedly admirable colour-blind casting just seems inappropriate here given that they are playing real-life characters (it makes the ubiquitous end-credit comparisons, quite frankly, risible).
Throw in slow-mo as the go-to whenever something potentially really emotional is about to happen and the end result is a real cinematic trainwreck.
On a Wing and a Prayer is now available to stream on Prime Video.