Poor pretensions

Directed by: Mennan Yapo
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Julian McMahon, Shyann McClure, Courtney Taylor Burness


Premonition

Disclaimer: This reviewer did not understand the film in question. Therefore, if you don’t understand the review or find it incomplete, please excuse us.
Well, you better play it safe when you are dealing with a film like this, and you should try to avoid, as much as you can, talking about the movie. The premonition this review has is that this review is utterly meaningless, just like the film.
Time travel films have their own set of rules, that’s quite okay, if you stick to the rules, like The Forgotten, or like Groundhog Day where Bill Murray finds himself living the same day over and over again. Whatever the rules may be, one thing is constant, that is, the protagonist must stand up to face the situation and try to find out what was happening. To start with both these things are missing in Premonition.
One wonders what’s wrong with Sandra Bullock, a fine actress with terrific potential. Why should she act in one supernatural dud after another (The Lake House, a time traveling hotchpotch of a romance!)? She should stick to simple romantic comedies like Two Weeks Notice or outrageous Miss Congeniality.
Anyway, we can’t avoid talking about Premonition. So, let’s try.
Linda Hanson (Sandra Bullock), a housewife is informed that her husband had died in a car crash. Linda, a mother of two, is understandably shocked. As her mother comes to share the grief, Linda finally goes to sleep. The next morning she wakes up to find her husband very much alive and kicking. But that’s not all. She also finds that she had woken up on a wrong day. It was a Thursday, or a Friday, no, no, it should be a Sunday today! Never mind!
But Linda does mind, and she is pretty confused. It’s because her husband keeps dying and keeps coming back alive. Linda goes to sleep and wakes up in different situations, sleeps again, wakes up again and it goes on and on, until you desperately expect her to get a life. What’s wrong her? Is her husband really dead or not? Is someone plotting against her?
The bigger question, however, is what’s wrong with the movie? A simple answer would be, everything. The film begins well, with right amount of thrills and right amount of problems, the marital life of Linda and her husband, throwing a few clues along the way. Then the film begins to slip away, as it finds itself into the mire of past and present, this date and that date. And when the film ends, you feel cheated, as if you were promised a stupendous lunch and was offered only a cold cup of tea, that too without sugar.
Sandra Bullock is good to look at. But she fails to command your sympathy. That’s the first barrier and one of the many reasons why the film fails. You do not even want to know who wrote the film or who directed it.
If you thought M Night Shyamalan’s Lady in the Water was supernaturally pretentious, chances are that you will reconsider your opinion after watching Premonition.

Rating: **