The Passenger(dir. Michelangelo Antonioni)
Riveting in it's portrayal of existential funk. L'Eclisse, while a worthwhile viewing, felt too blunt and obvious in it's portrayal of disillusionment and detachment. This film is thankfully more graceful and intriguing. The sub-plot with the wife was unnecessary and hurt the flow of the film. Why would the audience care all that much about his wife's quest to find him? It's not given enough screen time to be involving yet it's given enough screen time to be distracting. That sub-plot adds conventionality to a relatively unconventional film. Jack Nicholson delivers a fine performance. Maria Schneider definitely looks good, but doesn't deliver as fine of a performance as Jack's. The famous window shot while amazing on a technical level was slightly excessive in terms of length. The end was slightly dull and contrived, but I can‘t really think of ending it in any other way. It was still pretty unsatisfying. If Antonioni had cut off the narrative fat that was the sub-plot with the wife and concluded the narrative better, this would have been a lean mean masterpiece, but as it is, it's a slightly fatty near-masterpiece.
***1/2 out of ****
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