Fearless

Max Klein walks out of a passenger plane crash without a scratch. He carries the wounded away from the wreck, then takes a taxi and disappears. Back home his old life does not fit him: he is not afraid of dying, he eats the strawberries he is allergic to, he walks into traffic. When he meets Carla, who lost her baby on the same flight, each becomes the only person carrying the other's grief. The question the film asks is how someone comes back from guilt over an event they did not cause. Peter Weir directed. Jeff Bridges plays Max, Rosie Perez plays Carla and Isabella Rossellini plays Max's wife, with John Turturro in the cast. The screenwriter Rafael Yglesias came to the subject after a car accident of his own and began building the story after learning about United Airlines Flight 232, which crashed in Iowa in 1989. Winona Ryder auditioned for Carla, but Bridges felt she was too young for the part. Rosie Perez was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 84 percent. Roger Ebert wrote that the film shines a bright light into a corner where you usually do not look. The box office went badly: 7 million dollars against a 20 million budget. Who it is for: viewers who want trauma handled without inflation, and one of Bridges's best performances. Who it is not for: anyone afraid of flying. The crash arrives whole near the end and nothing about it is cut away.