Review: 'Passengers'

"Passengers" boasts a strong cast and feels well intentioned but ultimately suffers from being a trip audiences have taken too many times before.

The gentle mystery-drama follows the aftermath of a plane crash whose few survivors are treated together by one young grief counselor, Claire (Anne Hathaway). As she tries to help them cope and possibly unlock a terrible secret, she must also resist falling for one of her charges, a handsome, euphoric fellow named Eric (Patrick Wilson). Something turns out to be not right, naturally -- but is it supernatural?

To the filmmakers' credit, "Passengers" does not resort to jumping-out-of-cupboard moments to generate scares, but the film also lacks a certain drive, perhaps a tone of menace or portent, to sufficiently stir up suspense. That's a problem when the use of dour music instructs us that tension is one of the intended components, but the only palpable suspense is in the chords.

As a drama, it only partly works because the post-traumatic stress visited on survivors of catastrophes is not deeply explored, as it is in, say, Peter Weir's excellent "Fearless." To name the other films this one resembles, however, would be telling.

The acting is generally good, with the likes of Dianne Wiest and Andre Braugher helping to class up the thing. Wilson fares best, delivering a layered performance as a man trying to understand things that can't be understood while newly awakened to the sharpness and sweetness of being alive. But if you're a Hathaway fan and can only see one movie this week, "Rachel Getting Married" is your better bet.

That's because despite its virtues, "Passengers" never gets airborne, weighed down by inescapable predictability. Frequent moviegoers -- especially fans of the last 10 years of cinema -- will know this film's secrets minutes after it begins. The script is otherwise unremarkable, with perhaps not a single line of dialogue to take home.

With these actors and Rodrigo García's sensitive direction, "Passengers" might have fared well as a short. But as a full-length feature, it's a long ride to a familiar destination.