Passengers (2008) - 3 Stars

I love movies that mess with your mind. It's why I liked this movie enough to rate it 3 stars for concept alone. Though the story moves slowly, making little sense at times, its a fetal attempt, belonging in a chapter of the "Twilight Zone". Complete with a blooper duplicate scene, of the same man traveling down a staircase, it stood out in my mind, making me replay, thinking it had something to do with the plot. Anne Hathaway does a decent job playing a psychologist reaching out to surviving passengers of a crash. Hard to say too much more without given the ending away.

Claire Summers (Anne Hathaway), is a grief counselor sent by Perry (Andre Braugher), to interview five surviving passengers of a plane crash. As she speaks to the withdrawn group, consisting of Shannon (Clea Duvall), Dean (Ryan Robbins), Norman (Don Thompson), Janice (Chelah Horsdal), and the blond man (Andrew Wheeler), she notices discrepancies of an explosion in their stories. The more the group talks, the more they begin to feel paranoid, the airlines are watching them. Eric (Patrick Wilson), is the secretive part of the group, acting like the accident had little effect on him. He seeks counseling from Claire, outside of the group meetings.

Arkin (David Morse), from the airlines, keeps mysteriously showing up, trying to convince Claire the passengers are incorrect in their recollections of an explosion. The deeper Claire delves into her conspiracy theory of the airlines, passengers mysteriously start disappearing, one by one. Her busy body neighbor, Toni (Dianne Wiest), points the way for Claire as she compromises her boundaries with Eric, believing he holds the answers.

TriStar Pictures, Mandate Pictures, Sony Pictures Releasing
Director: Rodrigo García
Writer: Ronnie Christensen
Producers: Judd Payne, Matthew Rhodes, Keri Selig

I viewed 5/09