From Peter Weir comes a truly wonderful film, that is intense and harrowing, beautiful and heart rending. It does drag in the middle half, and John Turturo's part is underwritten, but this is a remarkable film. The crash scenes are certainly very harrowing, but it is in the performances, music score and direction that Fearless really soars. The script is surprisingly intelligent, the story and its themes is compelling and the cinematography is absolutely gorgeous. Fearless is brilliantly directed as is usually the case with Weir, and the score is one of the most haunting and emotional scores I have ever heard in a film, and I have heard a lot of them. The performances though are pretty much outstanding, bringing to life complex characters. Jeff Bridges is in my opinion a very underrated actor, and certainly a talented one. Here he gives one of his best performances as a man who is thrilled by the fact that he survived death and is convinced he is immortal. Isabella Rossellini is also remarkable as the loving wife, and Tom Hulce is fine as the well meaning attorney. And despite his underwritten role, John Turturo does what he can. But for me, the best performance came from Rosie Perez, she was truly captivating and absolutely believable as the mother who lost her young child and now completely overwhelmed by guilt and pain. Fearless isn't a very easy film to get into first time, it is emotionally heart wrenching and I think ambitious as well, the ending is proof of that. Overall, a wonderful film, minor flaws abundant but a film that deserves more recognition. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Max Klein (Jeff Bridges) survives a plane crash and emerges a changed man. He reunites a baby with the mother and walks away from the crash. He drives off to drop in on long lost friend. He feels invincible and eats strawberries while being deadly allergic. When the FBI finds him, he insists on flying back to San Francisco. Everybody is overjoyed. However he is distant from his wife Laura (Isabella Rossellini) and son Jonah. His business partner Jeff Gordon (John de Lancie) was killed in the crash. Lawyer Brillstein (Tom Hulce) wants him to exaggerate for Jeff's wife Nan (Deirdre O'Connell)'s settlement. Airline therapist Dr. Bill Perlman (John Turturro) is working with the survivors. Max becomes a media hero. Unable to cope, Perlman connects him to grief stricken survivor Carla Rodrigo (Rosie Perez) and her callous husband Manny (Benicio Del Toro) after the death of her baby in the crash.

I like the idea and I find the first act rather fascinating. Walking away from the crash is such a great opening. However I got a bit tired of Jeff Bridges' zen master performance and I found his character rather annoying. I want to find some insight or some revelation. Instead, he's a bit of a douchey socialpath. He needs a few more explosive moments. It's great that he has a panic attack after Nan puts him in his place. I also find the compensation discussion interesting. It could have added more of that into the movie. Rosie Perez plays a depressed angry character. It gets a bit depressing to watch her. It is hard to get my hands around these characters. It's as if the movie wants the audience to join Max but I can't completely get into it.

Another one of Peter Weir's great movies portrays everyman Max Klein (Jeff Bridges) surviving a plane crash, and becoming a completely different person thereafter. He becomes a sort of leader for all who survived the plane crash, afraid of nothing. But this newfound strength might do him as much harm as good.

I wouldn't simply call "Fearless" a character study. Aside from looking at how the plane crash changes Max's life, we see how it starts affecting his family and acquaintances, even as everyone tries to continue living their lives as before. And that scene of the plane crashing. You just might have doubts about boarding a plane after watching that scene (although it's actually kind of stupid for me to say that, as I have ridden many planes since seeing this movie). But the point is that this is unlike any movie that you've ever seen; you may never think about anything the same way after seeing this. A real masterpiece.

Also starring Isabella Rossellini, Rosie Perez, Tom Hulce (that's right, Pinto and Mozart!),and a very young Benicio Del Toro.