It’s no coincidence that Passengers – which received a limited release in the US last year – makes its way into Australian cinemas just when the buzz surrounding Anne Hathaway’s Oscar nomination is in full stride. However, it was in limited release for a reason; director Rodrigo Garcia (Nine Lives) is unable to build any suspense from the far-fetched and poorly paced script that takes one too many lessons in twist endings from M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, The Happening). That is, Shyamalan long after he had an air of credibility…

Mind you, Passengers starts off interesting enough. After a commercial plane crash leaves only five survivors, young therapist Claire Summers (Anne Hathaway) is assigned as their grief counsellor by her mentor Perry (Andre Braugher). An outgoing survivor by the name of Eric (Patrick Wilson) believes he doesn’t need any therapy, causing Claire to believe he is repressing all his grief. As she begins her group therapy sessions, Claire begins to question the accuracy of the investigation after their findings contradict the passenger’s recounts of the events leading up to the crash.

Before long, the story’s initial intrigue turns into tedium and frustration as the plot heads into the territory of absurd. Strangers start appearing in the distance, monitoring Claire and her patients.  Characters start to disappear unexpectedly and turn-up randomly, leading to awkward exchanges of dialogue that are seemingly inconsequential to the story. All of it blatantly suggests something isn’t right, which of course it isn’t, yet the suspenseless story blissfully plods along far longer than it should until it decides it’s time to reveal ‘what’ exactly. When it does, there’s a feeling of frustration instead of enlightenment, as the reveal is not nearly satisfying enough to excuse the hour of monotony that it took to get there.

Had Anne Hathaway not been the talk of tinsel town, I would have been surprised if Passengers was given a release here in Australia at all. That being said, Hathaway’s performance as the out-of-her-depth therapist Claire is adequate, as is Patrick Wilson as her most intriguing patient Eric. Such intrigue spawns its own sub-plot, as their liaisons start to venture beyond that of patient and counsellor. Yet the progression of their relationship is about as clunky as the film’s primary plot, acting only to prolong the inevitable twist that tedious bit longer, suggesting that there’s still a lot for first time screenwriter Ronnie Christensen to learn about dialogue and pacing.

Verdict:

Like The Sixth Sense or The Machinist, Passengers is a film that wants you to watch it a second time around to catch the cinematic sleight-of-hand that explains the end twist. Yet without any suspense supporting the overlong build-up, which early-on reveals itself as being too implausible to fool anyone, there is little desire to see Passengers once… let alone twice.

[rating: 2/5]

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