The Passenger - Palm Beach Post movie review

'The Passenger': A quiet ride with Jack Nicholson

By HAP ERSTEIN
Palm Beach Post

Identity theft was not a major crime problem in 1975, but that is what television reporter David Locke (Jack Nicholson) perpetrates in The Passenger, a 30-year-old art film from director Michelangelo Antonioni now in re-release in theaters prior to a new DVD issue.

Sony Pictures Classics

'The Passenger'

The verdict: Slow, purposely enigmatic political thriller with a first-rate restrained performance from Nicholson.

Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Maria Schneider, Jenny Runacre, Ian Hendry, Steven Berkoff
Run time: 123 minutes
Original release date: Feb. 28, 1975
Re-release date: Oct. 28, 2005
Rating: PG-13 for some violence, nudity and language.
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Frankly, I was befuddled and indifferent to the movie originally, but as long as you are prepared for its glacier-like pace and do not demand to know what exactly is going on at every turn, there is enjoyment to be had in this story's enigmatic narrative.

In it, a slim, young Nicholson globe-hops to political hot spots. In the midst of an African civil war, he suddenly decides to co-opt the identity of a dead stranger and finds that he has taken over the life of an arms dealer. This proves dicey, but the switch does have its compensations, as Nicholson encounters a nameless architecture student (Maria Schneider) who is drawn to his mobile existence and they begin a steamy affair.

Still, Locke is emotionally dead and Nicholson plays him with a stillness that we have rarely seen from him in the years since. Certainly it is a remarkable contrast to his Oscar-winning turn as McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, also released in 1975.

The pyrotechnics belong to Antonioni, including a famous six-minute continuous camera shot that moves outside Locke's hotel, then doubles back on itself like a Mobius strip. It is a showy effect, but with a purpose — a perfect metaphor for the entire film.