hold still, I'm gonna pick you up by your head.
PG-13
Anne Hathaway, Patrick Wilson, David Morse
Claire: Anyways, these aren’t my normal office hours.
Eric: Well, I’m not a patient.
Claire: Nooo, you’re just a creepy guy standing at my door in the middle of the night.
Eric: A lovely man…intriguing.
Claire: Ok, goodnight.
Eric: You don’t think so?
Claire: I’m not going to stand here and debate your loveliness.
After a plane crashes and only a handful of people survive, Claire (Hathaway) is assigned to the group as their grief counselor. When she gets differing stories on what happened before the crash, and some of the group members seem to mysteriously disappear, Claire begins to wonder if the airline is covering something up.
“When I grow up, I want to be an M. Night Shyamalan movie!” That’s what I felt like this movie was screaming throughout its running time, especially at the end. I don’t want to say anything spoiler-like, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that I hate twist endings that render the rest of the movie as essentially pointless. Especially when it’s a pretty dumb ending. Which this was.
It felt like a waste of some quality actors as well. Hathaway and Wilson were both fine, but then you’ve got David Morse, Dianne Wiest, Clea DuVall, and Andre Braugher all in smaller, one-note roles. I suppose Morse fared the best out of that group, with a creepy-turn-sympathetic role, but for the most part, this was Anne Hathaway’s show.
I will say that, after I adjusted to the silliness of the big twist, there were some legitimately touching moments in the last few minutes of the movie. I just had to put it out of my mind that it wasn’t making much sense and enjoy it for what it was.
Still, it’s hard to say that a movie is worth watching when the entirety of it is just there to set up one final concept. Especially when the set up is dark, slow, and riddled with almost non-stop moody piano music. Atmosphere does not equal interesting! There needed to be better dialogue and more well developed characters. And less piano music!
Belinda Carlisle may have been right…
10 – 2 for not having very well written characters and dialogue – 2 for that silly ending twist – .7 for all the piano music and dark atmosphere = 5.3
The Robot Who Likes Pretty Things 