Passengers
Let's get one bias out of the way right now: I would happily watch a movie in which Jennifer Lawrence sat and read the phone book. For my taste, she's one of the most talented and appealing young actresses working today.
Add to that the fact that Passengers is an SF film, and I was always going to head to the cinema to catch it. I also quite like Chris Pratt, so I was triply likely to see and like this one.
Indeed, I did enjoy it, troubling aspects and all. If you've already read reviews of the film, you probably know its deeply disturbing part. If not, you'll recognize it when it occurs, and I expect you will be very much troubled by it, as I was. I'm also not at all sure that I buy Lawrence's character's acceptance of the troubling part. (Avoiding spoilers is a pain.)
That said, I bought it enough, and enjoyed the rest of the movie enough, that I think it's worth your time and money. I ended up quite happy to have seen Passengers but also disturbed by it.
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2 comments:
To me, the resolution of the "troubling part" was more believable because of the "5,000 other people" aspect, which one of the characters did bring up. Knowing what would likely have happened without my help would probably have given me enough purpose to cope.
I liked the theme of being forced to deal with trashed expectations and making the most of what life throws at you. A quick trip through the Self-Help section of the local bookstore is proof enough of how we attempt to over-control our lives and then need support because things never go as planned.
That said, I had to suspend my disbelief early on. See, if I was Jim, the first thing I'd have done was wake up a squad of other engineers of varying specialties, because it would not have taken me a year to figure out that something was seriously wrong with the ship - - I think too much like Holmes, notice & remember too many details. But that would have made "Passengers" more of a science story, while what we got was really a character study played by two of the best actors today.
I think the filmmakers tried to show that he attempted to wake up the crew but could not get into their super-secret chamber--whose existence is highly questionable. Still, I take your point.
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