Opening today:
Passengers—Jim and Aurora are passengers on the ultimate red
eye, a huge, luxurious interstellar ship on a 120-year voyage to a colony
planet. Both of them are awakened from their pods way too early, with ninety
years of flight left—Jim first, Aurora
about a year later.
They can’t figure out how to put themselves back to sleep,
but since Jim’s played by Chris Pratt and Aurora
is played by Jennifer Lawrence, it isn’t surprising that they find a way to
pass the time. The course of true love doesn’t run smoothly, however, and
neither does the spaceship, and eventually perils arise that require derring-do
and sacrifice.
This science-fiction romance, directed by the Norwegian
Morten Tyldum from a long-postponed script by Jon Spaihts, is lavish and visually
elegant. The ship, which resembles a giant corkscrew as it twirls its way
through the void, is like a high-end shopping mall, spa and resort on the
inside. As solitary confinements go, it’s above average.
And Pratt and Lawrence are rather visually elegant, too. But
their characterizations are flat and uninteresting. About midpoint, Jim takes
an action that makes it hard to like him, but it’s also just about the only true
interpersonal drama that Passengers
offers.
The dialogue is most of the problem. Michael Sheen appears
as a robot bartender, spouting mindless platitudes in the grand tradition of
his profession, and this would be droll if most of Jim and Aurora’s lines weren’t equally banal.
Passengers is
cleverly imagined, and it has its moments, like a scene involving a swimming
pool and the loss of gravity, that show some sci-fi panache. But overall, it’s
slow going, the sort of film that’s only worth watching, say, on a long flight.
And even then, only if you can’t get to sleep.
The Phoenix Film Critics Society has announced its 2016
award winners! La La Land led the
field, taking seven awards, and Manchester
by the Sea, Hell or High Water, Moonlight and Hacksaw Ridge were also among the winners.
Clearly most critics got more out of La La Land than I did, but I was glad to see Linus Sandgren honored
for that film’s superb cinematography.
Check out the complete list of winners here.
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