Nicholson on the loose

Beautifully filmed in wonderful locations (notably Barcelona, southern Spain and the Sahara Desert), Antonioni's "The Passenger" is a joy to look at. Jack Nicholson is on form as the enigmatic TV reporter who decides to swop identities with a deceased arms dealer and, as a result, is led in a random chase across Europe, picking up Maria Schneider on the way, while being pursued by the police, his wife, a colleague and mysterious assassins. As to the coherence of the plot, well, Antonioni said: "The whole film is ambiguous, but I think this ambiguity is what gives it a sense of the concrete". Make of that what you will.

This is not an action movie, things move slowly and there are long shots of scenery, and of Nicholson interacting with people he meets in a detached and restless manner. I watched this film at the British Film Institute (where else) with my children; it is a kind of film that you just settle back and let it wash over you; enigmatic is a word that comes to mind, beguiling is another.