Premonition C- Cast: Sandra
Bullock, Julian McMahon, Kate Nelligan, Peter Stormare Director:
Mennan Yapo Rating: PG-13 for violent content, disturbing images,
language Running time: 110 minutes
If we hadnt made such a fuss about Memento back in 2000, we
wouldnt be bombarded with all these movies with nonlinear time
frames. Some, like Babel, make the most of the technique. Then
theres the latest, Premonition. Although it does its best to keep
the audience on board as it leaps backward and forward in time
(unlike Memento, which starts at the end of its story and goes in
reverse ), the result is confusing, disorienting, and ultimately
not worth anyones efforts in figuring it all out.
Set in EverySmallTown U. S. A. (it was filmed in Shreveport ),
Premonition focuses (in nearly every frame ) on Linda Hanson
(Sandra Bullock ) a wife and mother living a smug suburban
existence in a charming old house with creaking wood floors. And
why not be smug ? Shes got a Ford Explorer in the driveway, a
comfortably rumpled wardrobe that looks like it came from the
closet of an Austin college girl, an attractive, hardworking
husband (Julian McMahon ), and two cute daughters. She jogs, hangs
her laundry outside, cooks big Sunday suppers. Its the sort of
life that many women dream about.
Complacency is tossed out the prettily curtained second-story
window when Linda is informed by a kindly, uncomfortable cop that
husband Jim has been killed in a car accident. She reacts as
expected with numbness, horror, tears. She tells the girls; her
widowed mother (Kate Nelligan ) comes to stay and give
support.
Succumbing to exhaustion, Linda falls asleep. Upon waking the next
morning, theres Jim. A bad dream ? Maybe, except it keeps
happening. Not only does each new day bring Jim back or take him
away, it also doesnt progress the way a week should. Linda veers
from Saturday to Tuesday and in between, never knowing where shell
be until she pieces together clues to indicate where shes at in
her suddenly bizarre timeline. The effect of her increasing
disorientation (example: She encounters a someone on Thursday that
she doesnt remember having met on Tuesday because Tuesday hasnt
happened yet for her ) has a devastating effect on her
family.
Somethings got to happen, and it finally does, resulting in an
unsatisfying conclusion. Issues of faith, commitment and the power
of love are raised but dont take us anywhere. Peter Stormare
wanders onto the set in a role of a psychiatrist with no clear
purpose other than to spout a load of psychobabble exposition; a
priest does the same with his fields of expertise.
Director Mennan Yapo may be the only one who knows what the films
ambiguous outcome is supposed to signify. Its all very well and
highly intellectual to suggest that the audience can form its own
conclusions, but Premonition is so convoluted that the audience is
exhausted, out of patience, and made to feel stupid by the time the
opportunity arrives to do so.
This is the sort of film that will benefit greatly from a DVD
release packaged with alternate endings. Maybe there will be one
that will get Bullock off her grim-faced and depressing progression
of sluggish dramas (The Lake House ) and either put her behind the
wheel of an action thriller or back into the realm of physical
comedy, both of which she does so well. Look into the future,
Sandy, and learn from your past flash that big goofy smile and
make us laugh.