PASSENGERS
US, 2008, 93 minutes, Colour.
Anne Hathaway, Patrick Wilson, Andre Braugher, Dianne Wiest, David Morse, William B.Davis, Ryan Robbins, Clea Du Val, Don Thompson, Andrew Wheeler
Directed by Rodrigo Garcia.
Passengers is a film about a plane crash. Audiences interested in this genre may remember Peter Weir’s Fearless and the aftermath of the crash on passengers and on those who have lost loved ones.
Anne Hathaway appears as a grief counsellor, holding group sessions, dealing with individuals, being supervised, suspicious of an executive from the air company. Patrick Wilson appears as a man who has survived the crash and interacts with the counsellor.
The film follows some of the expected lines of how a counsellor deals with people who have been traumatised, short portraits of some of the characters, in the group, outside the group and their challenge to the counsellor. Andre Braugher appears as the supervisor, David Morse as the executive from the company. There is a mysterious and neighbour, sympathetic, played by Dianne Wiest.
For those who would like to see the film without the revelation of the ending - stop reading here.
Commentators on the film remembered The Sixth Sense and the famous phrase “I see dead people…�. The issue here is who is dead and who is alive – or, is anyone live, and all contributing to the healing of the counsellor who has died in the crash?
1. Audience response to films about planes, plane crashes, the consequences, the survivors? Capacity for coping such trauma?
2. The title, a plain title, yet the twist at the end? Echoes of The Sixth Sense?
3. The visuals of the plane, the aftermath, people wandering in the ruins, the visiting of the crash site? The later inclusion of the flight, the passengers, Claire and Eric together? The years? Holding hands? The fall, the crash? The atmospheric score?
4. Eric, on the plane, on the ground, wandering, a pleasant man, yet enigmatic, his own life, his apartment? Meeting Claire? Companionship, ingratiating himself, his knowledge of details about her life, the effect on Claire, the bond, the sexual encounter? The sessions? His help, dealing with the others who entered into Claire’s life?
5. Claire, surviving the crash, the memories? Her relationship with Perry, the task, the supervision, the counselling? The psychological skills – or not? The encounter with Eric, interest in him, the attraction, the discussions, his knowledge of her, her response? The apartment, the sexual encounter? The consequences, telling Perry she had crossed the line?
6. Claire, counselling, her skills, the gathering the group, the interactions with them, the different personalities, going round the group? The encounters with Shannon, in the group, outside the group, bonding, yet the challenges of differences? The discussion with Norman? The bereft man and his seeming to want her? The other members of the group and the recurring in her life?
7. The neighbour, the kindliness, offering to help, the discussions? her reminding Claire of her grandmother?
8. The continued puzzles, Claire trying to deal with all the passengers, the effect on herself? The insertion of the crash sequence?
9. The significance of the insurance official, his continual presence, clear interviewing him, his devious answers, continually appearing? The irony for the reasons for his appearing?
10. The twist in the plot, the reversal of roles? Claire as dead? The other passengers and they’re all coming into her consciousness in order to save her?
