Piché – The Landing Of A Man (Sylvain Archambault, 2010): Canada

Reviewed by Veronica Vanglin. Viewed at Lobero theatre.

Piché – The Landing Of A Man was reckoned to be on of Santa Barbara International FIlm Festival’s favorite films. I went in to the theatre with ratter big expectations and got very disappointed when it all started of like a student film and  the feeling that I’d seen this exact scene about a billion times before. But I learned not to judge a book by it’s cover because things were about to change. The director Sylvain Archambault and his writer Ian Lauzon made this story, based on true events, to something out of the ordinary.

Piché is about a pilot named Robert Piché who lives in Toronto with his family. We start of with getting to know the impact media has on him after he becomes a hero and how he is trying to hurdle the attention. His family are suffering from being in the spotlight and at the same time having to deal with Piché’s returned drinking habits. We go back and forward between his traumatic past and his sad present. We see how he was treating his earlier wife like nothing, how he is neglecting his daughter, his disturbing time in jail and at last the thoughts he has while spending time in rehab. It is August 23d 2001 and Piché is flying a plane with 306 people to Lisbon. When a gas leak occurs and the engines stop, Piché has to skillfully try to land the plane. Chaos erupts on board of the plane and it is very emotional to watch. He is successful and becomes a nation wide hero.

Up until the plane scene the film is not that interesting. The cinematography is not very winningly and acting is mediocre. This is a perfect example of how important the story telling in a film is. If it wasn’t for how great the story is portrayed in that end scene this film would have been something I looked at and then forgot. Now, I am definitely going to think about this every time I am on a plane.