On a Wing and a Prayer – Noble Intentions Yet Sloppy Execution (Early Review)

On a Wing and a Prayer is based on the true miraculous survival story of 56-year-old pharmacist Doug White. On Easter Sunday 2009, White (Quaid), his wife Terri White (Graham) and their two daughters are flying back on a private plane to Louisiana after attending the funeral of Doug’s brother. Shortly after taking off, the pilot dies, and Doug is forced to take control of the plane, putting his previous pilot experience to use while air traffic controllers and a flight instructor attempt to help Doug fly and land the plane safely. While the film may have has the noblest of intentions, this inspirational and powerful true story is sloppily and sometimes laughably executed. Comparisons will inevitably be made to Clint Eastwood’s far superior film Sully, as both deal with heroic pilots facing terrifying situations in the air and more or less focus on a singular event. But where the latter had enough meat on its bones to sustain a feature length film, this film doesn’t and often struggles to maintain momentum over its 102-minute running time.

There are a few scenes that take place before and after the flight but 80% of the film takes place during the incident and it can’t help but feel drawn out even with its modest length. Meanwhile, there are a few different subplots involving side characters that take place on the ground and while a few are necessary, some of them feel as if there only there to pad the running time. Almost anything that doesn’t take place on the plane is completely uninteresting and all of the characters it focuses on during these sections of the film all feel underdeveloped by the end not to mention aren’t performed by the greatest actors. The scenes taking place on the plane with the family are a bit better but still nothing to write home about. Considering the subject matter, the film never feels all that tense or suspenseful while having any knowledge of the true story will only deflate that tension even further. It also doesn’t help that the film suffers from bad green screen and incredibly dated visual effects. That being said, the film as a whole feel dated and not exactly in a good way.

Ultimately, it’s tough to be this negative on a film that clearly has its heart in the right pace in telling an inspiring true story, but its quality just wasn’t where it should be and feels like something more fitting for either the Hallmark or Lifetime channel rather than something debuting on a streaming service like Prime Video. The writing is noticeably bad, and the dialogue never once comes off as natural or feels like something real people would actually say. With a heavy focus on religion, the film can’t help but feel extremely preachy at times. There are many moments where it is clearly trying to pull on the emotional heartstrings of viewers but none of those moments are earned while almost all of them come off as extremely melodramatic and corny.

Despite everything mentioned above, On a Wing and a Prayer is a relatively harmless and inoffensive film that will likely find an audience. Quaid and Graham are both solid especially with the material they’re stuck working with and the film is at its best when it is focusing on the family and their dynamic in the midst of a horrible situation. That’s pretty much it as there isn’t really much else to say. At the end of the day, the film is likely going to appeal to a certain audience that it will satisfy, but for those who find themselves outside of its obvious target audience, it will probably best to stay away from this one.

still courtesy of Amazon Studios

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Connor Carey

www.connorsmoviereviews.com/