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What kind of a movie is “Passengers” supposed to be?
A mystery? A love story? A supernatural drama? The filmmakers
would like you to believe that it’s all of these things
at once. I say that, by trying to be everything, it can’t
decide what it wants to be and therefore achieves nothing.
This movie is a gigantic cinematic blunder, a slow moving
guessing game built on a vague premise that’s ultimately
ruined by an undermining plot twist. ***
It’s a thriller that doesn’t thrill. It’s a character
study that keeps the characters hidden. It’s as if the filmmakers
went ahead with only an idea instead of a fully developed
storyline. It almost makes you wonder why actors as talented
as Anne Hathaway, Patrick Wilson, and Dianne Wiest would
choose to star in it. They must have a lot of confidence,
because goodness knows those who doubt themselves would
lack the nerve to appear in a movie this misguided. Maybe
they saw something in the screenplay that was ultimately
dropped from the final film. Who knows? ***
“Passengers” tells the story of Claire Summers (Hathaway),
a young psychotherapist assigned to treat the sole five
survivors of a horrible plane crash. Only four of them agree
to meet in group therapy; the fifth survivor, a man named
Eric (Wilson), is so euphoric that he doesn’t feel he needs
treatment. ***
He does, however, agree to Claire doing house calls.
Once they begin meeting, he exhibits strange behavior. He
makes major life changes without giving them much thought.
He decides to take up painting as a hobby, and in a couple
of scenes, we see him slathering blue paint on one of the
walls of his house; the piece doesn’t make much sense, but
then again, art is subjective. He avoids details as much
as possible. ***
Strangest of all, he knows small, personal things about
Claire that no one else knows. Could it be that the trauma
of the crash triggered an extra-sensory perception? Or is
it something else? He hands her the keys to his house and
gives her permission to come and go as she pleases, which
is his way of saying he’s falling in love with her. She
initially doesn’t want to admit that the feeling is mutual.
***
Meanwhile, things take an ominous turn when Claire’s
patients begin disappearing. She believes it might have
something to do with Arkin (David Morse), an airport employee
who pops in and out of scenes when it’s most convenient.
Apparently, the remaining passengers are beginning to remember
that an explosion preceded the crash, indicating human error
on the airline’s part. ***
Arkin’s refusal to admit this brings Claire to the
conclusion that he’s behind some kind of cover up. It doesn’t
help that she keeps seeing a mysterious man (Andrew Wheeler)
standing outside her office; one of her patients, Norman
(Don Thompson), believes that this man, whoever he is, was
sent by the airline to follow the survivors. ***
Interwoven with this mess is Claire’s personal story,
which is so badly developed that it probably would have
been better to remove it from the script. An estrangement
from her sister is alluded to, although I’m not sure why
since it has no bearing on the plot. And then there’s Claire’s
neighbor, Toni (Wiest), a detached, bizarre woman given
flat, uninteresting dialogue. It’s as if she relies on Claire
for even the smallest topic of conversation. ***
And this brings me to the film’s big revelation, which
I obviously can’t reveal. However, it has nothing to do
with spoiling the surprise; if you knew the truth, you would
simply avoid the movie altogether. I haven’t felt this cheated
by a twist ending since M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Village,”
a story that revolved around a ridiculous, anticlimactic
secret. It’s the kind of ending that requires you to think
about earlier scenes--how they were constructed, who was
involved, what time of day it was, and so on. ***
As I went back and replayed certain scenes in my head,
it quickly became clear that, given what was said and who
was involved, the ending would not be possible. There’s
no point in describing it further since I’m forced to use
vague terms, but let it be known that the plot twist really
made me mad, so much so that turning off the film only halfway
through would have been a better idea. I would have remained
confused by the needlessly enigmatic plot, but at least
my intelligence wouldn’t be insulted. ***
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