The new faith-based film culled from actual 2009 Easter events hits many bromides in contrived fashion that good-natured audiences will find agreeable from the director of Soul Surfer.
On a Wing and a Prayer stars Dennis Quaid and Heather Graham along with Jesse Metcalfe and Selena And in the supporting cast that comes across like a Hallmark Channel film with som toe-tapping country tunes doing an admirable work with an Atlanta shoot. More familiar ones like Hallelujah and I’ll Fly Away will pop up.
Tragedy will strike the White family that will have them at one point traversing the Gulf of Mexico that puts Quaid’s Doug and others in a return flight guided by an inexperienced enthusiast. After an early practice flight doesn’t go as planned.
So, the stage is set after veteran pilot Joe (Wilbur Fitzgerald) succumbs rather quietly for enough ‘turbulence’ as Doug maneuvers with a little vulnerability and earnestness that Quaid has down pat. There’s traffic control of course and a tricky luggage compartment as part of the conflict keeping the stakes at a high enough altitude.
Well A Wing proceeds well enough to reach the desired motional bats without too much delay or silly diversions. Sean McNamara stages it all in undistinguished, if workmanlike fashion keeping it all family friendly. But, Quaid and even a perky Graham have traveled better cinematically at times, especially the former on a different, temporal Frequency over two decades ago.