Premonition (2007)

Directed by: Mennan Yapo
Format: DVD
DVD Features: Commentary, deleted scenes, gag reel, making of featurette, precognition featurettes, previews
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Julian McMahon, Amber Valletta, Peter Stormare

**This movie has recieved a Gummi Awards nomination for Most Abrupt and/or Confusing Ending.***

Premonitions; visions of the future. Believe it or not, I've had them. No, I don't claim to be psychic. I can't tell you who you're going to marry or what's going to happen tomorrow, but I have had dreams that came true. My grandmother has too. She dreamed about Kennedy. I dreamed about 9-11. Sounds kind of loopy, I know. The trouble is, I can never tell if it's just a dream or if it will happen. It's unreliable. But, if you watch the precognition featurette on this DVD, you'll find out that some people's visions are much more dependable. It presents a paradox. Is the future certain? Can you alter it if you know about it? Would you choose to have this ability if you could? Would you like to know the future, even if you couldn't change it? There has been a lot of research on the subject, a lot of speculation, and a lot of movies. Premonition is one of them.

Linda Hanson wakes up one morning and goes about her homemaker routine as usual. She takes the kids to school, she does the laundry and she goes for a jog. Then, there's a knock at her door. The officer on her portch tells her that her husband has been in a fatal car accident. Predictably, she's in shock and grief sets in. That night, she falls asleep on her sofa and the next morning, everything has changed. Not because her husband is gone, not because her children are fatherless, but because her husband...is in the shower! The next morning, she walks downstairs to find a funeral and the next, her husband is cooking pancakes for the kids. Is she going mad, she wonders? She seeks help. She tries a doctor, she tries a priest, and when she realizes that she's not insane, she tries to stop it. But, after she finds out why her husband has been so distant, does she still want to?

Although there isn't much to the movie visually (i.e. special effects, period costume), there is a lot of symbolism in Premonition. Images of crows are consistent throughout the film and Linda's daughters are working on a jigsaw puzzle in the story. The crows, naturally, giving a feeling of forebodeing and the puzzle metaphorically representing the clues and events that Linda is piecing together in the plot. The two symbols also serve to show the relative time involved. Little things like that really help the viewers in movies like these, but aren't terrbily subtle in this film.

The premonition that Linda has in the movie feels less like visions of the future and more like time travel. She moves through the movie with memories intact, while people she saw yesterday, don't know her name the next. Which, of course, presents certain paradox, just like the time travel theory. If you can see the future, can you change it? And if you can, then does it really mean you predicted the future? Premonition gets through the maze of "what if?"s fairly easily, but we're left with some questions. Whether or not she can save her husband is a big one, but not something I'm going to give away here. Some of mine were, "Who's really that close to their life insurance agent?", "What churches have cushioned pews?" and, "Why the Hell doesn't she call 9-11?"

I've never been a Sandra Bullock fan, nor counted her as one of the world's great actresses. However, I think she does a decent job in Premonition. Bullock convincingly portrays a woman dealing with great loss, motherhood and a failing grip on sanity. It's easy to take her seriously in the role of Linda Hanson; put yourself in her shoes. Her husband, Jim (played by Julian McMahon) is mostly a prick. The couple are having the usual marital issues. McMahon is passable in the role, but not extraordinary. Playing Linda's doctor, is Peter Stormare. You might remember him as the homicidal kidnapper in Fargo. With that association, I can never see him in a film and not consider him a "bad guy". And really, he isn't such a "good guy" in Premonition either. McMahon is good at what he does, but he doesn't seem to have much range.

When I went to the video store to check out this movie, I was thinking that, for some odd reason, this was the one about the lake house with Keanu Reeves. When I plugged it into the DVD player, I realized that I'd already seen this movie! So, it's an amusing side note that I was renting a movie that I'd seen in the past. For a Hollywood film, with a fairly tame plotline, Premonition wasn't half bad. It even raised some ponderous questions. At one point in the film, Linda is talking to her priest (Jude Ciccolella) in an attempt to get some direction. He mentions the theory that "nature abhorrs a vaccuum, even spiritually", basically amounting to her visions being gifted to her because of a lack of faith. I found that an interesting subject and not totally off the wall, even considering (or maybe more due to) my athiesm.

In the end, I don't think Premonition was a complete waste of time. It won't make it into my personal collection, but my initial chagrin at having rented it twice didn't sustain itself. If you want to see Bullock in a reputable role and you want a drama that's not overwhelmingly deep, Premonition might be the rental for you. It was thought-provoking on some levels, but lacked the sort of spice, style and excitement that makes truly entertaining cinema. And thusly, I endow the following rating.

Overall Rating: 2 1/2 stars
Hottie Rating: 0 stars

Alternate Recommendation: Memento
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