Premonições

Despite the rather thorough drubbing it suffered at the hands of some of the nation's most prestigious critics, "Premonition" is actually a pretty well-thought-out and tightly wound thriller, given emotion and heart by its star, Sandra Bullock. It's not a movie I would be wiling to go to the mat for, but as throwaway thrillers go, this one is really not half bad.

Bullock plays Linda Quinn Hanson, a suburban mother of two, who receives the shattering news that her husband has been killed in an auto accident. However, when she wakes up the next morning, she finds him, strangely, sitting in the kitchen, suddenly alive and well, benignly sipping coffee before heading off to work. The question quickly arises, did she dream the story of his death, is she dreaming now, or is she undergoing some sort of mental crisis precipitated by the shock of her loss? Or is she caught in some sort of bizarre time warp that allows her to jump back and forth between the periods before and after his "death," and, if so, might she be able to step in and alter the course of events to prevent the accident from happening in the first place?

In both concept and form, "Premonition" is pretty much an assembly-line thriller designed to tweak the audience's brain cells for a couple of hours before sending everyone home with not a whole heck of a lot left to think about once it's over. Still, it's intriguing enough while it lasts and only the true nitpickers among us will feel compelled to put its twists and turns in logic under the scrutiny of a critical microscope. Despite a few weak moments in her performance, Bullock actually makes us care about the character and the very strange thing that is happening to her.

"The Premonition" is by no means a classic - or even first rate - chiller, but those with a few spare hours on their hands and a penchant for brain-puzzlers could do worse than check it out.

I went to see Premonition yesterday and I enjoyed it very much, so I can't understand why people say that this is a bad film. It's a good psychological drama with top acting and good directing. It's a movie on which you have to focus, but that goes automatically and it's not so hard to follow when you don't think "What the hell is going on" during the film.

Sandra Bullock is very convincing, as always, and we also get some good performances by Kate Nelligan, Nia Long and Julian McMahon.

So please, don't listen to the critics, they don't know what they're talking about. And as for the rating on IMDb: the only explanation I can think of is that a lot of people don't get this film because it's too complicated (although it's not), or because they didn't like the ending, or maybe because they expected too much. But this is definitely a very good drama, and it's one of those movies that make you think about how important life is.

Everyone who wants to see this movie: see it without any expectations and prejudices, you won't be disappointed.

Time travel, eh? What a tricky old subject it is. Never seem to get it quite right, do they, these filmmakers? They always seem to drop a clanger that's caught not only by those film geeks who can spot obscure meaningless anachronisms that nobody else cares about, but even those who are paying only passing attention (eg. the older daughter doesn't have scars when she should). On top of this, the character caught up in this time-hopping conundrum resolutely fails to do the one thing every ordinary person would do in the same situation: try to break the chain of events. If the reasoning of this film is to be followed the outcome would be the same, but at least there would be a little logic involved.

Sandra Bullock plays the depressed housewife who, for no apparent reason, finds herself batted back and forth in time like a ball of wool between a kitten's paws. Every time she wakes up she finds herself one side or the other of her husband's death and very slowly pieces together the pieces of the puzzle. For the most part her predicament is surprisingly uninvolving, possibly because the writers neglected to give her any sort of character whatsoever, just a set of predictable responses to fantastic situations. Only at one brief moment, when Bullock asks her screen mother, 'If I let Jim die, is that the same thing as killing him?' does the film even remotely look as if it is going to go off in some interesting direction. Unfortunately, that idea is dropped as quickly as it is suggested, and the film lumbers toward one of those predictable conclusions that used to be a twist when Rod Serling wrote it in the 50s.

The film isn't boring, but it isn't particularly interesting either. Bullock does what she's paid to do, but she's a lightweight actress at the best of times so, really, you should know what to expect when you see that she's appearing in this type of film.

"Premonition" had all the elements for being a great thriller, but it ended up as a somewhat mediocre mess. The jumping around days part was interesting, but it was ultimately the director who killed the potential of "Premonition".

Normally I do like the performances in movies by Sandra Bullock, but she was way off in "Premonition". I didn't buy into her performance as a woman who had just lost her husband and the father of their daughters. It was like she wasn't fully there mentally, and that absent performance weighed down on the movie in overall. Julian McMahon did a good enough job as the husband and father.

I was disappointed with the mediocrity of the movie, because I must admit that I had expected much more from a movie with Bullock and McMahon in the lead roles.

The movie was also a bit shallow. The part with the affair in the making was just brought up briefly and then brushed well clear off the table. The characters could have used a bit more depth and background.

All in all, not an overly impressive or memorable thriller. This is not a movie at the top of the recommendation list if you want to watch a good thriller.

I read some negative reviews of this movie before I went to see it. They were completely misguided! The movie is both intelligent and emotionally appealing. The actors are excellent. The literary symbols are consistent and right on the mark for the destination of this very well-made film. It is important to keep in mind that the movie is made on a time-line of contingencies, so that what would otherwise be inconsistent actually can make sense in light of changes introduced by the non-sequential experiences of Sandra Bullock's character. I suppose those looking for some kind of horror movie or brain-blank thriller (both of which can be enjoyable in their own light) might not have enjoyed it. But those looking for a narrative worth following, a message with some significance, and a generally well-made movie ought to see it.