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Review #428 of 365
Movie Review of Premonition (2007) [PG-13] 110 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $9.50
Where Viewed: United Artists Denver Pavilions Stadium 15, Denver, CO
When 1st Seen: 18 March 2007
Time: 2:50 p.m.
Film's Official Website • Film's Trailer
DVD Release Date: unscheduled
Directed by: Mennan Yapo (Soundless)
Written by: Bill Kelly (Blast from the Past)
Featured Cast (Where You Might Remember Him/Her From):
Sandra Bullock (Infamous) • Julian McMahon ("Nip/Tuck") • Shyann McClure ("House M.D.") • Courtney Taylor Burness (Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus) • Nia Long (Big Momma's House 2) • Marc Macaulay (Miami Vice) • Kate Nelligan (The Cider House Rules) • Irene Ziegler (Runaway Jury) • Amber Valletta (Dead Silence) • Peter Stormare (Nacho Libre)
Soundtrack: order the CD below
Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word or less review of this film]
After Lake House and now Premonition, Sandra Bullock should swear off time bending, love-story movies forever. Though Premonition isn't so much about time travel as it is about seeing the future, living the future, or living the days of a week out of sync, or maybe it's all a dream or a flashback covered up by trauma, we'll never know because the movie doesn't tell us. All we know is that Linda Hanson learns on Wednesday that her husband was killed in a horrific car accident on Tuesday—and it took the police a day to get her the news despite him being less than a half hour's drive from home—and when she wakes up on what she expects to be Thursday, he's alive sleeping in bed next to her leading her to conclude what any logical person would, that the day she lived yesterday, must have all been a horrible nightmare as we know the mind can play tricks on us. Over the next couple of days, however, her memory of each day lived stays perfectly intact despite swapping days with Jim (Julian McMahon) alternating between the living and being dead states. She lives through his funeral and then a wonderful Sunday morning. Eventually, she begins to doubt these days are dreams and the thread of people she meets like Clair (Amber Valletta), the cute new assistant manager Jim is training, and the psychiatrist, Dr. Norman Roth (Peter Stormare) she visits to find out if she's crazy, start to make sense. She puts together the puzzle that eventually leads her to discovering some uncomfortable, though blatantly obvious things about Jim, and some moral consequences for her. The ending of the film is explosive and borderline gut wrenching, nothing like what one might expect. It's all about the joss of the universe, I guess. Just be prepared that this might not be a happy little ending with everything neatly tied up with a bow.
"…a lack of chemistry in the cast…and the ending, while explosive, clarifies nothing… leaving us confused and frustrated."
The Billy Kelly concept isn't so bad. It's fairly intriguing, and Mennan Yapo has done an adequate job of directing the film. There are many problems nonetheless. There is the mysterious symbolism that never jives like the crows and the Felix the Cat clock. Casting "Nip/Tuck"'s Julian McMahon was an odd choice for Jim because he has practically zero onscreen chemistry with Sandra Bullock. She seems like a puppy dog glomming on him while he exhibits steely disdain. His extracurricular activities aside, these two supposedly produced two beautiful little daughters played well by Shyann McClure and Courtney Taylor Burness, and a total lack of chemistry makes this seem unlikely. Maybe her character fooled around with Keanu Reeves in an earlier phase of her life. In other words, there's no love sort of lost between the two. Also, what's up with Linda Hanson? What does she do? She hardly seems like the kind to be content with some sort of stay-at-home, minivan-driving, laundry-line hanging mom. Perhaps, if the film had been set in 1950, the whole thing would have worked better. Then there's the odd portrayal of her somewhat cold and distant mother, Joanne, by Kate Nelligan—who, by the way is no way nearly old enough to be the mother of Sandra Bullock nor does she look it—that really doesn't sit well. She plays the role more like the mother-in-law, not the mother. Were it not for a line where Linda mentions to her mother that the main thing on her mind since she's learned of Jim's death is that she'll no longer be able to reach the serving platter on the top shelf that Jim's parents gave them, it's clear Joanne is not the mother-in-law, prior to that or without that it would be hard to tell. She's just not the typical glowing grandmother so proud of her daughter's life and children and seemingly idyllic home. Likewise for the eerie portrayal of Dr. Norman Roth by Peter Stormare. There was no reason for him to play this guy as such a creep. He's played too many thugs, mercenaries, and bad guys over the years to easily shed that skin perhaps. In the end though, the film exposes its twist too soon, actually in the trailer, so the 'fun' of that is gone leaving only the mystery of how the premonitions work to be revealed and how Linda begins to figure things out. Since the ending fails to resolve the point of the premonitions or why this has happened to Linda or take the cheap way out and have her wake up in a mental hospital having dreamed all this, we are left a bit like people anticipating the opening of a new thrill ride at the local amusement park, paying the $9 to ride it, getting inside and seeing that maybe it's not quite as billed in the advertisements and freaky poster, but now locked in by the safety bar with no escape and no refunds, having the ride start up, give us a taste for what could have been, throw some unexpectedly distasteful curves, and then stop mid swing living us up in the air with our feet dangling wondering how, if ever, we are going to get down, leaving us confused and frustrated.
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Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word review of this film]
Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word review of this film]
Other Projects Featuring Premonition (2007)
Cast Members
Sandra Bullock
• Julian McMahon • Shyann McClureCourtney Taylor Burness
• Nia Long • Marc MacaulayKate Nelligan
• Irene Ziegler • Amber VallettaPeter Stormare
Director
Mennan Yapo
Writer
Bill Kelly
| CD Soundtrack | VHS | DVD |
Premonition (2007) Review-lite [150-word cap]
After Lake House and Premonition, Sandra Bullock should swear off time bending, love-story movies forever. Though Premonition isn't so much about time travel as it is about seeing the future, living the future, or living the days of a week out of sync, or maybe it's all a dream or a flashback covered up by trauma, we'll never know because the movie doesn't tell us. All we know is that Linda Hanson learns on Wednesday that her husband was killed in a horrific car accident on Tuesday, and when she wakes up on what she expects to be Thursday, he's alive. The concept isn't so awful, and Mennan Yapo has done an adequate job of directing the film. Problems abound nonetheless. There's a lack of chemistry in the cast and characters whose motives are left unresolved, and the ending, while explosive clarifies nothing as to what's been going on or why.
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