Premonition: 1 Star (out of 5)
Linda Hanson (Sandra Bullock) has two beautiful daughters (Shyann McClure, Courney Taylor Burness) and a marriage that’s beginning to show signs of strain. When her husband (Julian McMahon) is killed in a car accident her world fractures as she begins to physically jump through time, forward and backward, over the span of one week. There is no pattern, or apparantly any reason, for these time jumps. One day she wakes up and her husband is alive, the next day he’s dead.
There’s not much to the story other than having Sandy look sad and act all kinds of depressed and crazy. McMahon’s part is so thinly written his hard for us to get a feel just who Jim Hanson is. Once we learn he’s thinking of leaving his wife and daughters for another woman (Irene Ziegler) we’re stuck with Linda wondering if any of this grief, or chance of saving him, is even worth the effort.
Films like this rely on how well they can explain the phenomena. This one fails miserably. Obviously writer Bill Kelly had no idea on how to explain Linda’s Quantum Leap-ing. The only explanation the film offers is eight words of Latin and rambled musings from a priest. Did you know that those without faith can time travel? Wow, I’m packing my bag!!! I couldn’t keep a straight face and I’m sure my snorts and chuckles would have bothered those next to me if they weren’t fighting their own guffaws.
There’s just nothing here. The characters are thinly written, the plot includes huge plot holes and steals mightily from better films like 12 Monkeys in terms of how changing past events unfolds. And it loses points with me for never entertaining the discussion of whether events themselves, not just the outcomes you desire or dread, can and should be changed. There are countless other movies with similar themes that do it better, even last year’s Deja Vu, itself a very mixed bag (read the review), leaves this one in the dust.
Premonition is rated PG-13 for some violent content, disturbing images, thematic material and brief language, with a running time of 110 minutes.