Passengers - Mistero ad alta quota

A film where only cast makes the difference, in fact without the skills of Patrick Wilson and Anne Hathaway "Passengers" would have just been a melodramatic mess. This isn't certainly a very original or scary film (although reminds a lot "The 6th Sense" and "The others"), but it's not the worst either, due to some interesting twists. Anne Hathaway is a talented actress and gets to make feel her fear and frustration. She got chemistry with Wilson and they end up being plausible by complementing one another. "Passengers" is not a movie I would strongly recommend but the shocking finale and some good acting performances make a decent (barely decent actually) choice for an evening rental.

Claire Summers (Anne Hathaway) is a young therapist assigned by her mentor Perry (Andre Braugher) to counsel the five survivors of a horrendous plane crash with 109 on board. Eric Clark (Patrick Wilson) is feeling a little too good. Shannon (Clea DuVall), Dean (Ryan Robbins), Janice (Chelah Horsdal) and Norman (Don Thompson) have varying recollections including an explosion. Mr. Arkin (David Morse) is from the airlines who insists it's pilot's error and not an explosion. Toni (Dianne Wiest) is her nosy neighbor. Eric is having nightmares and tells Claire to contact her sister Emma who he should not know about. Claire is fascinated with him. The survivors start disappearing. She starts falling for Eric.

There is murky moody mystery with supernatural undertones in this that is sort of interesting. The early promise slows down to a crawl as the movie turns to the romantic angle. I just lose the general direction of the movie. It doesn't build on the early tension. The sense of paranoia doesn't get raised. Director Rodrigo García simply fails to ramp up the movie. There is no excuse with so many great compelling actors around. Then the last 30 minutes try to re-engage but it culminates in an unsatisfying ending that is done way too much anyways.

Since there was no publicity for this film, my expectations for it were pretty low.

It has a slow pace and at times things don't make sense, but they do as the story moves forward. You just have to give it time.

At times it doesn't quite work and in a way doesn't break much new ground, but Ann gives a low key performance that I liked.

And the film did make me think about my life and what it is like to deal with death in sudden fashion, like a plane crash. Don't think they'll be showing this one as an in-flight movie.

I've heard that Sony kept this film quiet so it wouldn't interfere with the Oscar buzz Ann Hathaway's getting for Rachel Getting Married. Which makes sense, but I feel bad for all the people that worked on the film. They must feel abandoned by the studio.

I liked this movie. I like the whole, 'elemental humanity' that you find in it. It is possible to identify with the characters and the universality of the movie. It really is a bit of a psychological thriller which I like. The only thing is that, after watching it, you may get a little depressed. The ending is completely unexpected, I must say. It made the movie completely worth it, when at times it would just get really confusing out of no where. I definitely thought it was worth seeing. I love movies that invoke an emotional response. The twists and turns will keep you guessing and you may get more out of it than you expected. Happy watching.

I enjoyed this movie, but you need to be wary about how it's being described as a drama- horror-thriller. It's far more a drama than thriller, and I can't think of any horror elements in it at all. I don't want to give any of the movie away, so I'd like to describe what might make it more likely that you'd enjoy it.

Passengers concentrates on character development and primarily on Claire Summer (Anne Hathaway), a therapist who suspects she's discovered a cover-up while treating the survivors of an airplane crash, but also deals with her awakening to the reality that she's sacrificed too much personal life for her career. Her loneliness is as important to this movie as the mystery she's trying to unravel.

I liked Hathaway in this role. I wouldn't normally have thought of her as playing the part of a professional woman with two Masters degrees, as she usually conveys beauty and warmth instead of intellect. However, she's portraying a young academic on her first real-world case and she's convincing when she spouts the predictable, psychobabble an inexperienced therapist would likely spout. I also liked her relationship with her mentor Perry (Andre Braugher). The only weakness in the film might be insufficient scenes exploring her loneliness. It's the reason she gets involved with Eric (Patrick Wilson) but it should have been set up better. I'm not sure we're entirely convinced she would have gotten involved with him. Her isolation from family and friends should have been developed more.

It's not a great movie, but I did enjoy it, and I don't find the complaints I've heard about the movie credible; that it's slow and derivative. North Americans have developed such short attention spans, "slow" often only means there's not a car crash every few minutes. Yes, it's derivative, but so is Eagle Eye, a film currently doing very well at the box-office, which is obscenely derivative, but it doesn't seem to bother anyone since it's loaded with car crashes and other mindless action. (Eagle Eye is also appallingly dumb!)

If you're looking for a drama with some elements of suspense which takes it's characters seriously, then I would recommend it.