PREMONITION

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: thematic elements, brief language

Rated:

The worst nightmares are the ones that feel the most real. Some of us have even woken up one morning and realized it was not a dream, that the death of a loved one really happened, that your living room is filled with black-clad friends and relatives, and that no matter how much you wish you could turn back time, you cannot. This is something of the premise of Premonition, a complex thriller that makes surprising sense once you begin to put the pieces together.

Life is fairly normal in the Hanson household, but not so agreeable between the homeowners. Linda (Sandra Bullock) and her husband Jim (Julian McMahon) have been growing further apart as a couple, since he is preoccupied with work and she has cooled a little bit in her affections. The only thing keeping them together are their daughters, Megan (Shyann McClure) and Bridgette (Courtney Taylor Burness). With her husband off on a business trip, Linda goes about her day like any other. She does laundry. Runs to the store. Checks the answering machine. Puts up little plastic butterflies on the sliding glass door so the girls can tell when it is closed. Then the doorbell rings and her world comes crashing down around her. Jim has been killed in a car accident. Her mother (Kate Nelligan) comes to take care of the children, and Linda collapses with shock and grief. It is all she can do to crawl into bed at the end of the day. But when she wakes up, Jim is drinking coffee in the kitchen, and there's no indication there was ever an accident.

The past, present, and future blend into a single reality as Linda realizes that somehow she seems to be crossing back and forth between the week leading up to the accident and the days after. Things slowly start to make sense as she comes to the realization that she wants to save her husband. The result is an extremely complicated film that is hard to describe without giving too much away of the plot. I thought that it would be hard to follow, but somehow the script is good enough that you can follow most of the plot twists, although there still are infrequent and mild lapses in logic. I've known people who absolutely hated it, and others who loved it. I thought that for what it was, it was exceptionally well done, super charged with emotion, and had a great sequence of twists that led up to the ultimate conclusion.

For the most part, the content is mild but does bear mentioning. Linda uses the f-word once, and her husband abuses Jesus' name several times. There is an intense car crash and series of fuel explosions; a lightening storm strikes a poll in the backyard, sending hot wires snapping to the ground. Linda stumbles and falls, putting her hand down on a dead bird. She gets some of the blood on the glass door when she goes to wash it off. A child falls through a glass door and winds up covered in scratches and cuts; her face is scarred as a result. Two men drop a coffin and the lid springs open; the audience briefly sees a detached head fall to the ground. It's implied but not shown that Linda and Jim sleep together one night after an argument. Linda fears her husband was having an affair. There's a lot of emotional issues, including insanity and adultery, the loss of loved ones and tattered family relationships. Linda does try and repair her marriage, and comes to the realization that she wants to fight for Jim rather than with him.

All of the characters are very well depicted, and I particularly enjoyed seeing Nelligan, who is an under-appreciated but exceptionally talented actress. The children were absolutely fantastic as well, and while you have questions throughout, all of them are answered by the end. I would recommend viewers also listen to portions of the commentary on the DVD, which give some good insights into the different decisions made by the director and cast as the story progressed. It's not one of those movies that impressed me so much I had to run out and buy it, but it's definitely one that I will watch again, since it demands several viewings in order to fully grasp all the little clues that lead up to the conclusion. Although it might not have the ultimate conclusion that you would expect, Premonition is a mind-bender of impressive proportions.