Review: Passengers

On a special voyage to the planet Homestead II where a new human colony will be started, Chris Pratt is one of 5000 or so passengers with also 255 crew members. They are all in a cryosleep while the ship is in autopilot. The journey is set to run for about 120 years, but poor Pratt somehow finds himself awaking from cryosleep with 90 years still left to go. This was not meant to happen. He will not live long enough to last the journey. He is the only one awake and the only other ‘being’ active is the robotic bartender named Arthur (Michael Sheen), with whom conversation is somewhat limited. Pratt is also unable to put himself back to cryosleep. Starting to crack up, Pratt becomes obsessed with one of the sleeping passengers (Jennifer Lawrence). So obsessed that he contemplates doing something very selfish and very bad. He wouldn’t do the unthinkable would he? (No, not that unthinkable act, he’s not kinky or anything).

***** SPOILER WARNING ***** I think it’s near impossible to discuss this film without spoiling anything, and although some of the twists come early, I think it’s best if you save the review until after viewing. You’ve been warned. Although initially its premise starts to remind one of the excellent Ridley Scott film “The Martian”, this 2016 sci-fi/drama from director Morten Tyldum (“Headhunters”, “The Imitation Game”) proves to be its own thing. And for the most part it’s really interesting, rather ballsy and quite good. As it inched closer to its conclusion however, I felt like the film was getting away from what was working for me and going in a direction I didn’t want it to. ‘Nooooo, don’t go! Stay here! It’s working just fine! Oh, man…that’s a shame’. I’m still giving the film a recommendation, but I have to admit the film starts to lose its balls after a while, and more to the point, I don’t think the film and the Chris Pratt character earn the right to finish things off in the manner they do. I think Tyldum and screenwriter Jon Spaihts (“The Darkest Hour”, “Prometheus”, “Doctor Strange”) have rather misjudged audience reaction to Pratt’s character here.

Anyway, let’s start with the beginning. I was worried at the prospect of spending 100 minutes with the generally glib Chris Pratt and the often insufferable Jennifer Lawrence almost exclusively, however, there’s something unsettling about this corporate-sponsored space travel thing. We’re talking “Total Recall” evil corporation kind of unsettling, though it turns out not to be the case at all. However, also unsettling? The central premise. There’s supposed to be over 4000 people on board this ship and Pratt appears to be the only one around. We quickly learn that everyone else is on board, it’s just that there was a problem with cryosleep that has caused Pratt to wake up early. Too early. 90 years too early, leaving him with no one to spend the rest of his life with and no way of getting out of this slow, lonely crawl to death. Unlike Matt Damon, Chris Pratt isn’t a botanist and he’s unable to ‘science the shit’ out of anything. And it’s around that time he notices how pretty Jennifer Lawrence is and commits an act that torpedoes any audience sympathy for him whatsoever. What a selfish bastard this guy is. Yet, crucially it doesn’t ruin the film. This is partly because as selfish and unforgiveable as the act is, it’s still something that someone out there if in the same situation, would probably do. It’s plausible, so long as one forgets that this is a science fiction film to begin with of course. I don’t like that someone would do what Pratt does, but that isn’t important in judging the merit of a film. In fact, one of the good things about the film is that the Jennifer Lawrence character doesn’t make it easy for Pratt to redeem himself. The film may be biased in his favour, but for much of the film, Lawrence’s character certainly isn’t. At one point she actually beats the crap out of him, which I almost wanted to cheer.

To be honest, for much of the film Jennifer Lawrence’s actual performance was more problematic for me than anything else in the film. I just find her demeanour on screen to be completely unpleasant, and that’s before she learns the deal here. It’s also not just an on-screen thing or something confined to this film, I find it quite often the case with her. More importantly though, her performance here is rather unpersuasive. Once she’s told the basic situation (or rather Pratt’s conveniently vague interpretation of it) her immediate reaction is something akin to having a mild headache. Sure, panic eventually sets in, but by that point it was too late, she had failed to sell the character’s appropriate reaction, and we’ve already seen a much more convincing display of panic with the Pratt character anyway.

It’s initially very audacious to present us with a protagonist who isn’t likeable or worthy of redemption (even if one can sympathise with his situation greatly before that), and I found that point of difference to the norm to be quite interesting. What I really liked about the film was that it kept coming up with new twists just when you’re starting to worry that it’s going to run out of steam. However, after the halfway point one realises that the film is setting up all of these twists and turns with one ultimate purpose in mind: Giving the Pratt character an ‘out’, a way to redeem himself from his initial misdeed. Fuck that shit right there, nice try but I can see what you’re doing and I ain’t buying what you’re selling. The guy is essentially committing murder…very, very slowly. It’s true, that’s what he’s doing and the filmmakers want to either give him a pass or distract us from the horror of what he has done.

On the plus side, it’s really crisply shot by Rodrigo Prieto (“Brokeback Mountain”), and we get a really nice performance by Michael Sheen as essentially the robotic version of Joe Turkel in “The Shining”. However, one other actor who will remain unnamed seems awfully wasted in a mere silent walk-on given they’re a very familiar face. That was weird.

A good movie that could’ve been even better if it allowed one of its main characters to be held accountable for their actions and not go easy on them. As is, it makes the final quarter makes the film slightly less enjoyable than it could’ve been and leaves you with a slight bitter taste in your mouth. Still, it’s better than I had heard at least.

Rating: B-