Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

Passengers tries very hard to be something it's just not.  It tries to be something that's clever, amazing, and memorable.  But it fails.

The movie starts with a plane going down.  Nearly everyone onboard is killed.  Only a handful of passengers survive.  Anne Hathaway plays Claire, a counselor tasked with providing therapy sessions to the survivors. 

But there's one passenger, Eric, (Patrick Wilson) who is behaving differently from the rest.  He refuses to attend the group sessions, insisting on house calls, instead.  Against her better judgment, Claire treats him separately from the others, and eventually gets involved with him on a personal level.

Meanwhile, weird things start happening.  The passengers can't agree on what actually happened, right before the plane went down.  And some of them feel that they're being followed.  Then they start disappearing.  As Claire starts her own investigation, she comes to believe that the airline is covering something up. 

That's the basic story.  So what goes wrong?

Well, a whole lot of weird scenes are shown, with absolutely no explanation.  For instance, a dog keeps showing up at Eric's house.  The dog stands near the house and barks its head off.  Eric seems concerned about this, but that's all we find out.  This happens a few times, making one wonder... "What's the deal with the dog?"  But we don't find out until the end.  Then there's Claire's strange neighbor who says some very odd things to her, leaving us to wonder about her.  There are people who follow some of the passengers, again with no explanation.  The entire movie, things like this keep happening.  Little scenes that make very little sense.  You know it'll all be explained at the end, but the entire time you're questioning "what's up with that?" 

A clever film uses mis-directions in a very subtle fashion, so that they pretty much fly right over your head the first time you see the movie.  Then at the end you can enjoy reviewing what you saw, and realizing how clever these little scenes were.  But in this movie, they are so obvious and in your face.  They might as well come with a subtitle that says "Remember this - it'll be important later".

Furthermore, I was completely appalled at Claire's actions.  For a supposed professional, she sure acted like an idiot.  When it comes to Eric, she does one inappropriate thing after another.  Even when her instincts tell her one thing, she does the opposite.  Even though it made her uncomfortable, she accepted his house key, joined him on a rooftop, climbed onto the back of his motorcycle and took off into the night.  Not to mention hopping into bed with him.  Remember - this is supposed to be a doctor/patient relationship!  The whole time I was watching, I was questioning what in the world this woman is thinking!

Granted, all of these things were explained at the end, too.  But after being aggravated for 95% of the movie, there's only so much an ending can do to make it up to me.  It's the basic "too little, too late" problem.

I thought the acting was good, and the movie was certainly intriguing, but it could have been so much better.  As it is, it's just a movie that tries to be clever, but isn't.  Three stars, because it's just "average".  See it, if there's nothing else on.  Avoid it, otherwise. 

Recommended: No

Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older