Passengers (2009); drama film review

Poster artwork for the drama film Passengers.

Marital Mess by Linh

Making its Australian film premiere at the 2010 Adelaide Fringe Festival, Passengers is an original and innovative film from one of Australia's emerging talents. Passengers is the debut feature film from Australian director/writer Michael Bond, who achieves a sense of realism and immediacy in a film about lack of trust and suspicions weighing on the human psyche.

Passengers is a road movie with a difference that presents some unexpected moments between a married couple, and allows the audience to enter a personal space to become observers of an intense marriage breakdown. The film seems frustrating to watch as the audiences switch sides from sympathising and supporting one character to the other.

Passengers follows a married couple, Tom (Cameron Daddo) who is an aspiring screenwriter and Melony (Angie Milliken), a struggling actress, on a drive from Santa Monica to Hollywood for a dinner arrangement with Melony’s friend Kath.  Melony suspects Tom of cheating after she finds a name and number on a receipt. Along the way, they stop off to see Tom’s writing partner Roger (Bruce Davison) and his second wife Nina (Patty Yu), but Melony’s suspicions grow and their marriage deteriorates as they continue to their doomed dinner date.

Cameron Daddo stars as Tom and also produces for the first time, contributing to a film that highlights his acting prowess in a dramatic role. Daddo gives a subtle and understated performance that suggests his character may be hiding more than one would suspect.

Angie Milliken is superb as the neurotic, emotionally-fraught actress Melony who keeps the film’s pulse pumping as the long drive to Hollywood intensifies between the pair. Although Tom is in the driver’s seat, Melony appears to be the one driving the relationship towards its end, and her suspicions spill over in a melodramatic display of tears and tantrum.

Hungarian-born and Melbourne-based cinematographer László Baranyai captures all the subtle and idiosyncratic performances from both Cameron Daddo and Angie Milliken, as well as the conspicuous and enveloping traffic of night-time Los Angeles. His changing camera angles from close-ups to long shots assists in the depiction of a relationship breakdown as if witnessed in person.

The film's title could suggest that the viewer becomes a passenger in the car with Tom and Melony, who witness the conversations and interactions between the couple. The scenes are filmed in ways to give the audience a sense of sharing a confined space with people they hardly know and as the journey continues, they know even less and questions arise from their observations.

Director Michael Bond may have deliberately left the film open-ended with so much for the audience to decide and discuss about the couple, their friends and the journey itself. Passengers is beautifully filmed with strong and nuanced performances from the cast that gives a certain level of intrigue. It’s a character study of how two intelligent and talented people experience a communication breakdown as they each try to forge a career in the seemingly shallow world of Hollywood.

DIVIDED: Tom (Cameron Daddo) and Melony's (Angie Milliken) marriage is on the rocks in the film Passengers. Image: Quantum Releasing, Passengers LLC.

Director: Michael Bond

Writer: Michael Bond (screenplay)

Cast: Cameron Daddo, Angie Milliken, Bruce Davison, Patty Yu, Lotus Daddo, River Daddo, Oscar Williams, Christopher Mario Parker, John Rogers, Martie Ashworth

Producers: Michael Bond, Cameron Daddo, John ‘JJ’ Rogers, Jonathon Stretch,

Cinematographer: László Baranyai

Original Music Composer: Gerald Brunskill

Film Editor: Drew Thompson

Production Manager: Marvin Cheng

Art Director: Robert M. Bouffard

Costume Designer: Meredith Montano

Running Time: 1 hour and 24 minutes.