PASSENGERS

ENGLISH - (PG13) - 16 April 2009 - Thriller/Mystery/Horror
Distributor: TriStar
Running time: about 88 mins.
Director: Rodrigo Garcia
Producers: Joseph Drake
Writers: Ronnie Christensen
Casts: Anne Hathaway, Patrick Wilson, Clea DuVall, David Morse, Dianne Wiest
Plot: Psychotherapist Claire Summers (Hathaway) is called upon to treat a group of five survivors of a recent plane crash. One of the survivors, Eric (Wilson), exhibits symptoms that suggest he is disguising his true feelings about the crash by making major life changes. As Claire and Eric grow closer, Claire's patients begin to disappear. She comes to believe that the airline is targeting them to prevent fears about a mechanical failure from spreading. Claire visits her estranged sister after Eric suggests that she make peace with her.

THE VERDICT:

Green Tea says:

WARNING SPOILER! This thriller is hard to be classified as one. Imagine you are a plane crash survivor and you learn to deal with post-traumatic stress, fears for seeing people dead, and pressures. Everyone knows it is hard and it was translated into this movie, somehow ended up been pathetic.

The movie tells about Claire Summers (played by Anne Hathaway), a psychotherapist called upon to treat a group of five survivors of a recent plane crash. Out of the five, Eric (played by Patrick Wilson) is showing the signs of bipolarism and his tendency to hide his real feelings about the crash. Claire decided to take the matter deeper by investigating the truth behind the crashes. One thing she does not know, the group of five is mysteriously missing one by one.



The problem with this movie is that it does not have enough suspense and thrill factor to be considered as one. Probably because it does not have action elements on and it rely too much on the different shades of realism and fantasy. Tuning in the first half, it was rather lambasted and bored. The first half serves nothing but the romantic and awkward characters around the show kind of cocktails. Thus the mystery and thriller are yet not to be found.

Then comes the second half, I would said more alive and more energetic. The build up plot is too slow and it peaks at very late of the show. I think the final 10 minutes are something to be remembered out of the whole 89 minutes of run time - with climatic, reasons and explaination coming all in a single hand.

Unfortunately, the movie misfire and it has some M. Night Shyamalan's style of twisting here and there but these days, M Night Shyamalan's type is getting no where in the audience's heart anymore. This lead to one point for everyone to ponder carefully, the problem came from the lack of gel, inconsistency and lowly screenplay. I thought the twist was dumb and does not make any logical sense - thus challenging my insanity, logical perception and my patience while watching it.

I think all the actors have give out a great characterization. The movie has a mild characterization building and it was done in a slow manner. The cast esemble of Anne Hathaway, Patrick Wilson (the guy who played Nite Owl II in Watchmen), David Morse (the psychokiller in Disturbia), Dianne Wiest (Academy Award winner) shows you that these talented stars did form a big star power for the movie. They did brilliant but why do they get themselves in this retarded movie?

Still, this is just another passable movie and only watch when you feel you need a fresh air for a lower state of mind. Too bad, some great talents are wasted with a pointless direction of the screenplay - otherwise, this should be a promising psychological thriller type of movie.

THE RATINGS.....
CAST - 3.0 stars
STORY - 2.0 stars
CINEMATOGRAPHY - 3.0 stars
EFFECTS - 3.0 stars
an overall>> 2.5 stars
GreenTea-O-Meter: 10.4