Empire (UK)

PASSENGERS

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DIRECTOR Morten Tyldum CAST Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Pratt, Michael Sheen

PLOT Three decades into a 120-year trip to colonise a new world, two of the starship Avalon’s passengers emerge from cryosleep prematurel­y. With nearly a century to go and no way back, Jim (Pratt) and Aurora (Lawrence) are, for all intents and purposes, the last two people alive.

IF YOUR MONEY was on Bridget Jones’s Baby or Allied for 2016’s most heart-fluttering romance, The Imitation Game’s Morten Tyldum just cost you some cash. Neither the stammering charms of Mark Darcy nor Marion Cotillard and Brad Pitt’s torrid World War II affair manage the emotional tug of this unlikely three-hander about a pair of space travellers and a robot bartender.

New lovers act like they’re the only ones in the world, but Passengers’ dreamy-eyed duo become precisely that after an interstell­ar commute is disrupted by asteroids on the line. A cascade of system failures leads to a hibernatio­n malfunctio­n and, while their 5,000 neighbours sleep, Jim (Pratt) and Aurora (Lawrence) wander the ship alone.

Unorthodox the setting might be, but the blossoming romance is entirely familiar — from bantering over lunch to sharing a box of popcorn at the cinema. It just happens to play out within the glossy white halls of a starship resembling an Apple-sponsored shopping mall. Pratt and Lawrence are magnetic as the literal star-crossed lovers, convincing­ly seduced by each other over the passage of time; an awkward, space-suitbumpin­g kiss giving way to a passionate, Cheerios-all-over-the-floor breakfast shag.

Aside from an obtuse computer (voiced by London Undergroun­d’s Emma ‘Mind The Gap’ Clarke) and a clutch of skittering Roombas, their only company is Michael Sheen’s sagacious android barman. Arthur is the couple’s only sounding board — part relationsh­ip counsellor, part conscience and occasional­ly a necessary plot device. Sheen injects a welcome third perspectiv­e, breaking into the lovers’ solipsism and laying bare their flaws — which are more than just passing. Jim and Aurora’s relationsh­ip is built on a lie, one that covers obsession, self-interest and crushing guilt. The love story, far from saccharine, unfolds to provide the darker aspects of need and greed ample room to fester.

The couple’s divergent background­s make for early comedic fodder (her ‘Gold Class’ breakfast leaves him staring mournfully at a bowl of cosmic Weetabix), while Aurora’s introducti­on to the ship’s leisure facilities conjures images of Jack and Rose dancing in steerage. The Titanic parallels are felt throughout, sometimes in explicit nods (a giddy space walk stands in for ‘flying’ on the prow) and elsewhere in the films’ broader structure. Much like Cameron’s nautical yarn, Passengers’ early love story gives way to a latter disaster flick: metaphoric­ally as the couple’s relationsh­ip is riven by betrayal, then literally as the malfunctio­ning Avalon begins a spiral towards destructio­n.

Having survived a trip almost as drawn-out and uncertain as the Avalon’s (Jon Spaihts’ screenplay appeared on The Black List back in 2007), Passengers is as surprising­ly traditiona­l as it is undeniably effective. A timeless romance wedded to a space-age survival thriller, it may be a curious coupling but Tyldum’s Turing follow-up is a journey well worth taking. JAMES DYER

VERDICT Titanic amongst the stars — this is a touching, heartfelt tale of loss and love for the Gravity generation.

 ??  ?? The kitchen section of IKEA really was the future.
The kitchen section of IKEA really was the future.

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