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As Good As It Gets

Absolutely the worst movie.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Michelangelo Antonioni likes very much to place the action of his films in the desert: "Red Desert" (1964), "Zabriskie Point" (1970) and some of this "The Passenger" (1975) Professione: reporter (original title). Not much is happening in this last one. I wonder how many were interested in watching this film if it did not have the name of Jack Nicholson, Maria Schneider (due to her previous role in "Last Tango in Paris") and Antonioni himself? I don't think too many. I like other Antonioni films, very much, especially "Blow-Up". I really like Jack Nicholson and "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" is one of my favorite movies ever. But this "The Passenger" is something hard to look at. Only the scenes with that angel called Maria Schneider's are somewhat more digestible.

Across the sands of time there is little comfort for the identity of loneliness...I've been willing to write about Michelangelo Antonioni's Masterpiece. It's just that when you sit down to describe and reflect upon such a monumental artwork, you need time and patience to be able to focus on the most important conclusions. For me it is always important to see the consequence of implications which you get from a movie. And I am pretty sure that "The Passenger" is indeed one of the best film I have ever seen.The psychological drama about loneliness, alienation and the trouble of finding one's identity stars Jack Nicholson as a television journalist who assumes the identity of a dead arms dealer in Chad and then escapes his own identity and life cycle. We witness the typical 1970's movies feel of losing something real while trying to live the life. I am unsure if this film's intelligent script would've had the same impact if there were no such beautiful landscapes which complement the psychological transformation of the main character David Locke. The cinematography by Luciano Tovoli is distancing the characters of the film one from another. A deliberate alienation which represents a person's desire to escape oneself. Losing his identity Locke finds during his journey a soul mate - an architectural student in Barcelona (Maria Schneider). We witness their unconventional relationship and route through exotic and deserted villages and cities.At the same time Locke's real life (represented by his unfaithful wife) tries to reach and find him. The main character is deliberately avoiding being found and desperately is trying to not go back to his original existence. France and especially Spain present us with both fascinating and haunting images of nature and architecture. It is very important for the viewer to notice Nicholson's character being "blown by the wind" from one deserted place to another. David Locke is a traveler through time and space who is attracted to his young female companion and spiritual soul mate, but ultimately is troubled only by his own escapade.And although his new arms dealing identity finally takes its toll, he is presented as a newborn soul, freed from the constraints of his ordinary life. This alienated freedom provokes many viewers to try to find what is not right in their own lives and reflect upon how to change that. My feel about "The Passenger" is very similar to what I got from Antonioni's "Zabriskie point", "Blow-Up" and his trilogy "L'Avventura", "La Notte" and "L'Eclisse". A distant both haunting and beautiful cry about longing for a change and true meaning of one's life. It is very inspiring to see how a genius director can evoke true feelings in us with this enigmatic and intricate movie of possibilities. And there is no better example for this than the penultimate 7-minute tracking shot at the end of "The Passenger"...

Journalist David Locke (Jack Nicholson) travels the Sahara Desert and meets gunrunner David Robertson. He finds the lookalike gunrunner dead and switches identities. He tries to fly away but others believing he's the real Robertson want him to deliver. In Barcelona, he meets a girl (Maria Schneider). Meanwhile his old colleagues are looking for Robertson to do a story on Locke's last days.It's very naturalistic, slow, long scenes, lots of nothingness and rather ponderous. The first half is a real drag. Maria Schneider comes in after an hour. She's able to inject a little bit of energy, a very little. At least, Jack Nicholson has somebody to truly interact with. That's my main objection to the first half. It's all about trying to figure out what the heck he's doing. There is the fascinating single shot scene near the end. It's interesting to see the only true saving grace. At least, this is director Michelangelo Antonioni's style. It just isn't mine.

All of the trademarks of an Antonioni film are here: slow pacing, artful framing, interesting architectural backgrounds, painterly use of color, pretty women, non-linear time sequencing, and a minimal score. What is missing is the obscurity seen in previous Antonioni films such as "Eclipse" and "Red Desert." The clarity of presentation takes the film out of the category of "art film" to one that has potential appeal for more general audiences.The story is seemingly simple, but delves deeply into one man's psyche. That man is David Locke (Jack Nicholson), a war correspondent on assignment in Africa trying to report on an rebel insurgency. After being stymied in every attempt to contact the rebels, and with his Jeep stuck in the desert sands, Locke falls to the ground in despair saying "All right, I don't care." That incident, together with Locke's failing marriage, provide motivation for his seizing an opportunity to leave all behind and start over using the identity of another David (Robertson) who has died in an adjoining hotel room. This other David looks enough like Locke/Nicholson so that the identity exchange, even the substitution of passport photos, is believable. The theme of wanting to start over again is appealing--who hasn't had that desire at some point in life? Initially swapping identities infuses Locke with renewed interest in life, but ultimately he finds that he cannot shed his old self, at one point saying "The old David is hungry." Locke's relating the story of the blind man regaining his sight is wonderfully done, perfectly summarizing his own life. There are subtle observations, like Locke's wife saying that she had more interest in her husband after being informed of his death than she did when he was with her.Antonioni keeps a lid on Nicholson to great effect, he slows his speech and walk to where we respond to Nicholson as Locke rather than as Jack Nicholson. Along the way Locke takes up with a woman (Maria Schneider) whose name is never given. I found Schneider's performance here engaging, much different from her fine performance as Jeanne in "Last Tango in Paris." Outside of sharing Schneider, "The Passenger" has essential similarities to Last Tango. Both are stories of men trying to resolve an existential crisis--one man through anonymous sex, as in Last Tango, and the other through a new identity here. The emotional tone of the two movies is also remarkably similar.The DVD comes with two commentary tracks recorded in 2005. I found the commentary done by Nicholson to be the more interesting. This doesn't seem like something that Nicholson would do. I think I learned as much about Nicholson from his commentary as I did about the film--he is more serious about his acting and film in general than I have given him credit for.I found this film well worth two viewings. I think it would be hard for anyone not to watch the iconic final scenes more than once.