Passengers

There’s little doubt that Passengers represents the least effective entry within Rodrigo García’s otherwise impeccable filmography, as the director, working for the first time from a script written by someone else, generally proves unable to infuse the proceedings with the kind of gritty authenticity he’s become known for. The headscratcher of a storyline plays a significant role in the movie’s inability to capture (and sustain) the viewer’s ongoing interest, though it’s the curiously (and uniformly) underdeveloped characters that stand out as Passengers‘ most disappointing attribute – as the incredibly vivid figures that tend to populate García’s films are entirely absent here. Ronnie Christensen’s spare yet unsatisfying screenplay, which essentially details a grief counselor’s (Anne Hathaway’s Claire) efforts at helping the survivors of a plane crash cope with their situation, is primarily bogged down in cryptic elements that remain frustratingly nonsensical right up until the admittedly intriguing twist ending, and it’s subsequently impossible to escape the feeling that the movie’s surprisingly affecting conclusion hardly justifies the dull, almost interminable nature of what preceded it. The end result is a hopelessly uneven effort that just barely earns a positive recommendation, thanks primarily to Garcia’s striking visual choices and Hathaway’s relatively compelling lead performance.

**1/2 out of ****