MANILA, Philippines?The movie, ?Passengers,? doesn?t quite know what it wants to be?a fact that only confuses the audience, turns some of them off, and leaves the rest wanting for more. At first glance, it seems to have all the right elements working for it: A director with a solid background (Rodrigo García) and a cast topbilled by Anne Hathaway, Patrick Wilson and Dianne Wiest.
However, this potentially winning formula lacks an essential ingredient and that absence pretty much negates the effectiveness of everything else. The production doesn?t have an interesting story to tell?or, rather, it fails to tell its story in an interesting way.
In this existentialist exploration/psychological thriller/romance, Anne Hathaway stars as Claire, a therapist who has to help a group of plane crash survivors deal with post-traumatic stress.
But, things are not what they seem?the passengers can?t agree as to what happened before the crash, mysterious figures lurk around the edges of scenes, and one of the survivors?Eric (Wilson)?seems to know personal details about Claire and starts pursuing her romantically the moment they meet. Then, there?s Mr. Arkin (David Morse), a guy from the airline who?s hostile and seems to be hiding something.
Creepy neighbor
Befuddlement begins one-third into the movie. Is this a conspiracy film? Is the airline trying to cover up something? Are aliens involved?
Why is a wolf-like dog following Eric around, and how did it get to go all the way up a condo building? And who is the creepy neighbor (Wiest) who wants to get involved in Claire?s life? Do the weird people popping out mean that this is a supernatural movie? Perhaps it?s both? And so on.
Tricking your audience into thinking one thing, and then surprising them in the end with the truth isn?t exactly bad storytelling or filmmaking (think how effective ?The Sixth Sense? was), but this sort of thing needs to be seamless in order for it to be pulled off with success. In this movie, the red herrings thrown at viewers smell fishy (pardon the pun) and point in too many directions at once, leaving them confused or suspicious.
Revelation
When the revelation finally comes, it?s too late?you already know what?s going on?and, worse, the knowledge has been with you for some time!
In short, there are no ?aha!? moments here. In fact, there?s hardly any suspense at all, which is doubtless the main reason why the plot is easy to predict. Making the right conclusions is a breeze when you?re not distracted by tension.
Hathaway gives a competent performance, managing to flesh out her character and give Claire real solidity. Unfortunately, Wilson, who?s on the same level of gorgeousness, doesn?t do so well (these two stars? good looks might serve to distract you from the deficiencies of the script, though.)
Wiest doesn?t do much, and neither do Andre Braugher (as Claire?s mentor) and Morse?they?re merely used as narrative devices rather than important characters. While the performances are solid, the lack of tension makes ?Passengers? only mildly interesting to watch.
