Movie review: Passengers

Claire is a counselor who is tasked with working with the surviving passengers of a plane crash when she realizes their individual accounts of the crash differ. As she digs for the truth she encounters the hostile airline employee, Arkin, and crosses professional lines with a passenger, Eric. But what she finally finds may hold the biggest surprise of all.

Anne Hathaway (Claire), Patrick Wilson (Eric), Andre Braugher (Perry), David Morse (Arkin).

This movie starts off slow and remains slow until about the last 10 minutes when things finally get somewhat interesting and we realize, this has been done before. And better.
Character development is sporadic and sparse which makes sense in the end but until then is just plain frustrating. The plot itself is rather simplistic but the film seems to go off in several directions to fill time until the big reveal toward the end. In the meantime the story isn’t very good with a serious lack of chemistry between Hathaway and Wilson. Braugher performed well as always while Morse did his usual great job of being a jerk.

Special effects were at a minimum so nothing new there. Sound, dialogue, backgrounds, and camera work were all nicely done but couldn’t save this one. The plot just didn’t have much energy until the end which, although very good, isn’t enough to make up for the first 80 minutes.

Overall a slow moving attempt at making a dramatic thriller that has a hard time holding audience interest. If you are a serious Hathaway fan or dramatic thriller fan give it a shot, otherwise pass on this one.

Mild destruction images and sexual scenes but no nudity and little foul language that I could remember. Preens and above will be fine with this though they will likely get bored with it before long.

Released: 2008
Reviewed: 7.5.16
Star rating: 3 out of 5
Genre: Thrillers, Mystery, Supernatural Thrillers, Psychological Thrillers

copyright ©2016 Dave Riedel