On the surface, it wouldn’t seem as though Passengers, a psychological thriller centered around a crashed airplane, and Pride and Glory, an NYC Irish Family Cop Drama (capitalized because it deserves it, damnit), would have much in common. That surface would be right. But there’s a twist…
Passengers may be trying to give off that Lost vibe, but it reminded me more of the 2004 film The Forgotten, which is more than ironic because I really don’t remember much about The Forgotten at all. What I do recall is that Julianne Moore played a mother whose child went missing; it co-starred Dominic West and featured a pretty cool effect where people got sucked off the screen into who-knows-where. The rest of it was garbage, so Passengers shouldn’t be flattered by the comparison. Thankfully for the film, it’s not nearly as bad as that movie I forgot about, but it does feature a few things in common: a female protagonist, characters that go missing without explanation, and, well, I’ll probably forget about it shortly.
Anne Hathaway plays a shrink that’s assigned to help the few remaining survivors of a plane crash cope with the tragedy they’ve just endured. The most interesting person to her, for a few reasons, is a man played by Patrick Wilson that’s showing no symptoms common to post traumatic stress syndrome. He’s happy as a clam, and no one knows why.
As the film plays out, Hathaway makes nice with Wilson, trying to get inside his head while he tries to get her into bed. David Morse enters the picture as a mysteriously (and possibly nefarious) airline employee, as Hathaway begins to suspect some sort of cover-up. Andre Braugher spends a couple days on set as her superior. Dianne Wiest spends even less time on set as a nosy neighbor who seems just a bit too interested in Hathaway’s affairs. I’m curious as to what got left on the cutting room floor – I realize Wiest and Bruagher aren’t the biggest of names, but their roles are throwaways that could have filled by just about anyone. By the time the “shocker” ending comes along, the only thing you’ll be surprised about by it is how little how you care. Though I admit that I hadn’t come up with what the twist was, it still remains one of the least surprising twists ever, no doubt because the audience is left sitting and waiting for the other shoe to drop the entire time.
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