A model sci-fi that suggests themes more than it broadcasts them.
Passengers
Grade: B
Director: Morten Tyldum (Imitation Game)
Screenplay: Jon Spaihts (Dr. Strange)
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence ( Winter’s Bones), Chris Pratt (Jurassic World)
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 1 hr 56 min
by John DeSando
“You can't get so hung up on where you'd rather be, that you forget to make the most of where you are.” Aurora (Jennifer Lawrence)
Where they are in Passengers is almost to the end of years of suspended animation getting to a planet that will receive a
second settlement of 5,000 travelers. The real interest of this pleasant and interesting sci-fi is in the romance of two travelers awakening too soon from their hybernation (Aurora, played by Jennifer Lawrence, and Jim by Chris Pratt).
After the audience struggles with his arguably unethical decision to awaken her, the usual sci-fi tropes kick in about the strategies to avoid boredom, to avoid damage to the ship, and to avoid romantic complications. Of course, one look at the out-of-this-world -attractive principals, and you know the romantic part will be a certainty.
The more interesting challenge of beating boredom for 90 or so years is the decisions that determine how the years will go, such as constantly assessing the outcome and working to subvert it by taking over command of the self-propelling ship. Along the way the two befriend an android bartender, Arthur, played smoothly and ingratiatingly by so-cool Michael Sheen, confirming the intent of the film to scrutinize humanity in a microcosm rather than technology. Even the bot has human-like attributes.
Yes, the movie may rely too heavily on the romance, as some critics have pointed out, ignoring the rich thematic possibilities of monogamy. Because the heroes rely on themselves completely, a case seems also to be made by writer Jon Spaihts for the virtue of a couple’s isolation in the pursuit of happiness.
These possibilities are my own speculation because the film itself does not explore them except by inference . Regardless, anyone appreciating the allegories of 2001 and Twilight Zone will be delighted by the rich possibilities of Passengers, albeit with a little work to extract the meanings:
“Man has gone out to explore other worlds and other civilizations without having explored his own labyrinth of dark passages and secret chambers, and without finding what lies behind doorways that he himself has sealed.”
― Stanisław Lem, Solaris
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.rr.com
