Directed by Rodrigo Garcia (Nine Lives) and written by Ronnie Christensen, Passengers is a mystery-cum-romance film. The plot is constructed in such a way that all the different plot points come together at the end, for a revelation that resets everything we have learned up to that point. The problem is, Garcia and Christensen are not very effective at keeping the audience guessing. Instead, most will be aware from the beginning that there is going to be some sort of climatic twist. Frankly, I got the “gimmick” about fifteen minutes into the film. Thankfully, I enjoy the work of Anne Hathaway and found Patrick Wilson’s performance interesting enough to stick around and finish watching the movie.
When a plane crashes on a Vancouver beach and only a handful of passengers survive out of more than one hundred, inexperienced grief counselor Claire Summers (Anne Hathaway) is called in by her trusted mentor, Perry (Andre Braugher), to help them work through their trauma. The survivors are an eclectic bunch. Shannon (Clea DuVall), is a guarded cynic; Dean (Ryan Robbins), an agitated victim of circumstance; Norman (Don Thompson), a paranoid pessimist; Janice (Chelah Horsdal), a recluse; and Eric (Patrick Wilson), an enigmatic optimist experiencing euphoric feelings of renewed purpose. Claire soon begins to suspect that the airlines reports of the events leading to the crash are full of inaccuracies. While both her supervisor and her motherly neighbor (Dianne Weist) advise her to focus on helping her patients and not worry about the things she can’t control, the disappearance of several patients and an a secretive airline executive (David Morse) send her on a mission to find some answers.
Passengers is one of those films that’s truly difficult to review without giving away the scripts every twist and turn. Suffice to say, it’s very much a genre flick that borrows liberally from other sources like Lost, The Sixth Sense and Final Destination but all of the earlier projects accomplished their goals notably better. The script is extremely weak but some surprising turns in the third act, kept me from assigning Passengers to utter Blu-ray oblivion.
Despite the weak material, Anne Hathaway, Patrick Wilson and the rest of the supporting cast all deliver strong performances. They manage to give some energy to underdeveloped characters that are chained to the film’s final revelations rather than a prevailing sense of self-actualized logic; something that can’t be easy. Garcia and Christensen have made everything so predictable, that the inevitable twist is a welcome change; if for no other reason than to jolt the viewer out of an overwhelming sense of malaise. The twist also serves to justify everything that comes before it. Strange interactions are grounded, motivations are given clarity and the particulars of the plane crash are finally brought to light. While I already had a sense of the characters’ real circumstances, I didn’t expect the details to soften many of the criticisms I was ready to level against the film.
I don’t want to say anything specific about the ending, so as not to ruin the best part of the film. If you enjoy Anne Hathaway and Patrick Wilson and can wade through some pretty asinine plot points to get to an interesting third act, give this one a try; if not, avoid Passengers at all costs.
Passengers has a very nice 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer that — aside from the appearance of some obvious edge enhancement – is very impressive. The film’s palette is both healthy and inviting, blacks are rich and fully resolved, and contrast is impeccable. Skintones are solid as well, overcoming every challenge presented by Garcia’s absorbing shadows and eclectic lighting schemes. More importantly, detail is outstanding: foreground objects have been rendered with the utmost care, the finest textures have been preserved, and overall clarity is remarkable. I didn’t catch sight of any significant artifacting, source noise, crush, or banding. Once again, the fine folks in Sony’s Blu-ray division prove that low-key, low profile films are just as important to them as the money-making summer blockbusters.
Sony has also outfitted Passengers with a precise and immersive Dolby TrueHD 5.1 surround track. Even though hushed conversations and atmospheric piano music dominate the film’s soundscape, dialogue is natural and weighty, the rear speakers craft an engrossing soundfield around the listener, and appropriately attentive LFE support makes its presence known anytime the camera boards our survivors’ doomed plane. Hearing wind and flame whip past each passenger is as unsettling as it is convincing, as well as a testament to the track’s flawless pans and accurate directional effects. A handful of scenes suffer from minor normalization inconsistencies — an early car-window exchange between Hathaway and Wilson is initially pinched, an encounter between Hathaway and Morse on a porch left was hard to hear. However, powerful flashbacks and moody interiors keep everything hurtling along in style. Passengers may be a quiet film, but its lossless audio track’s aggressiveness and proficiency is surprising.
Passengers arrives on Blu-ray with all of the special features that appear on the standard DVD, and presents them in high definition.
• Audio Commentary: Director Rodrigo Garcia and actor Patrick Wilson’s deliver a solid discussion that explores Christensen’s original script, the on-set atmosphere and the working relationship between Wilson and Hathaway
• In the Night Sky (HD, 23 minutes): This behind-the-scenes EPK digs into the production, the contributions of its cast, and its filmmakers’ vision and methods.
• Analysis of the Plane Crash (HD, 16 minutes): A dissection of the special and practical effects that created the film’s plane crash. Once again, talking heads and film clips abound, but it was nice to see that the director and designers were more concerned with how the characters reacted to the crisis rather than the particulars of the crumbling plane.
• Deleted Scenes (SD, 9 minutes): A trio of cuts.
• BD-Live Functionality
