Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence are Fantastic Together in "Passengers"

 
   From director Morten Tyldum, who gave us the thrilling Oscar nominated film The Imitation Game, comes a romantic sci-fi adventure that is highly entertaining, yet falls just short of being spectacular. Passengers is one of those films that has a fun premise, great execution, but then suffers from a classic Hollywood trope of making sure there are explosions in any movie with an inkling of action, ultimately taking away from what was working well to begin with. As the movie went along I kept thinking to myself "Man, this is REALLY good!" But as the third act began, it gave way to some interesting narrative choices, ultimately skewering the possibility of true greatness. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed this movie a lot for reasons I will expound on, and I highly recommend seeing it.

   Passengers is set sometime in our future. There is a company that has monopolized the business of colonizing other planets and offers the opportunity for people to leave the over-crowded and highly expensive Earth in lew of a more peaceful and new beginning. The catch is that the trip to the new world takes quite a while. This particular story follows the voyage of the starship Avalon, which is traveling to the new planet Homestead II. The trip is 120 years long, meaning the people hibernating on the ship will wake up in a new century and to a new world. Jim Preston (Chris Pratt) is one of the 5000 passengers making the trip. When his pod malfunctions, waking him up 90 years too soon, Jim faces the inevitability that he will live his life alone on the Avalon, dying long before they reach Homestead II. His choice to wake another passenger, endangering their life along with his own, or face the cruelty of solitude for the rest of his life, is what the entirety of the story is based on. Ultimately, he wakes up Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence) because he just can't stand to be alone. Let the drama ensue.

   This is where the movie both shines and falls short. Passengers is a love story set in space. Both Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence have insane chemistry and it oozes off the screen. In the first act of the film Pratt holds his own, going full Cast Away, beard and all, until he wakes Aurora. Known for his comedic roles (which is, like, every role he's ever done) Pratt pulls out his best performance to date. Jim is as realistic a character as you can imagine. Pratt brings a sense of optimism and phsycological balance to what is ultimately an "everyman" role; while also holding his own against the talents of Jennifer Lawrence, who has proven her acting chops time and time again, and who - once again - delivers a fantastic performance. He is the stand out for me in this movie. He shows with this role that he can do drama really well, which I hope to see him do more often. He has some truly moving and emotional scenes as he spends the opening moments of the movie alone in solitude, save for a barkeep robot played brilliantly by Martin Sheen. As the two principle characters, Jim and Aurora are relatable, fun, and engaging people who strive to make the best of their situation, and both Pratt and Lawrence play them really well.

 
   The psychology of the characters is where the true drama lies. The idea of fatal solitude against the opportunity to live with a companion, knowing that in order to do so would be to condemn the other person to that same fatal solitude without their consent, is all this movie really needed. This mindset is what drives the choices made by Jim, as well as the driving narrative force of the film. If the movie focused 100% on this idea, it would be so much better for it. But heaven forbid a production company would leave the entertainment value to character and story alone. Nope, this is a space movie, so that means we need technological mumbo-jumbo coupled with explosions and mounting issues. I get it, you need to build stakes. Given the dramatic situation the characters find themselves in, aren't the stakes high enough? At one point in the movie the characters face mounting problems with the ship and the story turns from Jim and Aurora's relationship to fixing the issues. If there was only one major issue they had to deal with, maintaining the focus on their relationship, that would have made for a much more compelling story. However, that's not the case, and it's a bummer.

   Ultimately, that's my only gripe with the movie, and it's really just an oversized nitpick. The movie is really fun and entertaining. There are some really beautiful shots in this film and the overall direction is neat and clear. The writing is smart and witty, but the acting is the best part and it elevates the story. The story itself has some cliche moments, but ultimately you don't care because Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence are so dang good together. In the end, Passengers is a fantastic character study that is a joy to watch, making for a great escape for any movie-goer. Going into the holiday weekend it should be towards the top of everyone's view list because it's that entertaining.