Movie Review Premonition

Premonition (2007) 

Directed by Mennon Yapo 

Written by Bill Kelly 

Starring Sandra Bullock, Julian McMahon, Nia Long, Kate Nelligan, Amber Valletta, Peter Stormare

Release Date March 16th, 2007

Published March 16th, 2007

Sandra Bullock's star has dimmed a great deal since the days when she was touted as replacing Julia Roberts as the queen of romantic comedy 12 years ago thanks to 1995's While You Were Sleeping. In this decade she has had only one legitimate hit movie, Miss Congeniality, that was sold on her star power. On the surface that would seem to reflect badly on Ms. Bullock.

In fact, however, there is a more complicated and interesting reason for her seeming decline. Sandra Bullock made the conscious choice not to be pigeonholed by her rom-com persona. Thus why she has made such eclectic and low key choices as  28 Days, Murder By Numbers and her small ensemble turn in the Oscar winner Crash. None of these movies has done anything for her box office reputation but they are, at the very least, risky and interesting choices.

For her latest film, the thriller Premonition, Bullock returns to big budget, mainstream, starring roles and chooses a most unlikely and uneven film choice. Premonition is a shallow, time shifting weepy about a woman who loses her husband over and over again until we in the audience aren't sure if we are cheering for Bullock to save her man or for the husband to finally disappear for good.

In Premonition, Sandra Bullock stars as Linda Hanson, a suburban mom of two lovely pre-teen girls (Shyann McLure and Courtney Taylor Burress). Her home is well tended, she runs everyday and keeps in great shape and yet there is something tearing at the fabric of her perfect suburban sprawl. Linda's husband Jim (Julian McMahon) has grown distant since the birth of their daughters and Linda doesn't know what to do about it.

All of that however, goes out the window when Jim is killed in a car accident. On his way to what he said was a job interview, though there is fair suspicion that Jim was meeting with another woman. Linda and her family are devastated, that is, till the next morning when Linda wakes up to find Jim in the kitchen making breakfast for his daughters.

Was it just a nightmare or a premonition? That becomes the point of the film as day after day Linda awakens to different days of the week and different realities before and after Jim's death.

Directed by German auteur Mennan Yapo, in his American debut, Premonition rolls out a time space continuum crossed with Groundhog Day plot and proceeds to beat it into the ground with repeated ridiculousness, lost and found plot lines and inconsistencies you could drive a semi truck through, oh sorry Jim.

The script by Bill Kelly, who has written nothing since the 1999 comedy Blast From the Past, is a mess of unfinished ideas and pointless existentialism. This is a film that is desperate to be deep but is far too lazy to figure out just what is deep or compelling about this plot. The story cannot even adhere to its own basic logic by connecting the various plot strands that either hang unfinished or simply peter out due to lack of interest.

Sandra Bullock has always had the ability to earn and keep an audience's sympathy and that is still the case; even in trash like Premonition. Even playing this ditzy, overwhelmed character who is blessed with all of the same knowledge that we in the audience are but refuses to make much use of it in her ever increasingly dire situation, Bullock somehow retains our sympathy.

The problem isn't Sandra Bullock, it's a bad script and a director more interested in camera histrionics and moody, gray skied atmosphere than in telling a smart compelling story. I must admit, director Mennan Yapo is a talented scenarist. With his best friend and cinematographer Torsten Lippstock, Yapo delivers some very interesting and unique visuals. His liberal use of handheld cameras gives the story a chaotic urgency that would have served well in a more coherent story. Unfortunately coherence is the last word I would use to describe the abysmal mess that is Premonition.

Sandra Bullock's best days at the box office are behind her but at least she still makes interesting and risky choices. Unfortunately, starring in Premonition isn't a choice that pays off well. Incoherent, ludicrous and outright irritating, this time twisting flick lacks the chills, thrills or even the modest entertainment value necessary for a successful film.

Sandra Bullock will walk away from Premonition still a sweetheart, still a presence who can win and hold your sympathy. It's the movie around her that suffers from its many plot holes and structural flaws.