Passengers

In the supplement "In the Night Sky: The Making and Manifest of Passengers," director Rodrigo Garcia states that he didn't really connect with the screenplay on his initial reading until he reached the last 20 pages, which unfortunately, shows in the film. It's not that there is anything particularly gruelling about the first two-thirds of the movie, wherein romantic leads are established and the mysteries pile up; it's more that the last segment has such a genuine passion within that it feels like a different film altogether. Rather abruptly, the film opens with a plane crash where Eric (Patrick Wilson) wanders through the rubble, only to discover that he's one of few survivors. To help Eric and the other passengers cope, Claire (Anne Hathaway), a grievance counsellor, is brought in to organize group therapy sessions, wherein patients go missing from week-to-week and some intrigue surrounds the surviving pilot (David Morse), who may or may not know more about the crash than he lets on. As Claire develops unprofessional affections for Eric, her immediate supervisor (Andre Braugher) attempts to guide her, while a peculiar neighbour (Dianne Wiest) offers unorthodox advice. The observant viewer will notice the occasional silhouette wandering around in the background of certain scenes without any sort of diegetic acknowledgment, adding an air of creepiness to this otherwise routine suspense. It all makes sense in the end, when the film finally finds its footing, delivering a familiar but honest message about what matters in life. With a little more fine-tuning on earlier conversations in the film, and some panache surrounding the occasionally awkward set-ups, Passengers could have been more than the forgettable but serviceable thriller that it is. On the upside, watching the film for a second time reveals some fantastic comic layers to Wiest's performance, once we understand her motivations. Included with the DVD is a featurette on the plane crash sequence, some deleted scenes and a commentary track from Rodrigo Garcia and crew. It is all sufficiently informative and appropriate, given the nature of the film.