Dir.
Mennan Yapo, US, 2007, 110 mins
Cast: Sandra Bullock, Julian McMahon, Shyann McClure, Courtney
Taylor Burness, Nia Long, Kate Nelligan
Review by Jean Lynch
With the kind of title
that can only tempt some scurrilous wag of a critic to
cheerfully conclude ‘seen
it all before’, and a defiantly non-linear narrative
about a woman, Linda Hanson (Bullock) whose husband Jim (McMahon)
is killed in a car crash one day, is in bed beside her the
next, is buried the next, plays with the kids the day after
that, and so on, whilst said wife is left wondering if she’s
losing her mind or if this is really happening, then this
is the kind of film that really needs to deliver.
Premonition is a thriller and yes,
it has the prerequisite twist. However, unlike other films
that hurtle headfirst towards ‘the twist’ the
one employed here, as dramatic as it is, is more of a device,
the real story belonging to the characters.
Essentially Bullock’s film, she engages our empathies
with just the right amount of pathos and feistiness and,
most of all, confusion. The film is shot entirely from her
viewpoint and, as events unravel, the audience’s uncertainty
as to what is happening here mirrors Linda’s uncertainty.
Director Yapo speaks of the plot as imagining the days are
playing cards, thrown into the air and landing randomly,
with each day being played out as it falls. The one constant
is Linda, who knows that today may not logically follow yesterday
but remembers what happened then and what should be happening
now, and is afraid because of what she knows must come. She
savours the moments with Jim, tries to make sense of events,
wants to avert his death. Her increasingly bizarre actions
and talk make the people around her – her mother, children,
friends - question her sanity but along the way more is revealed
about her family than Linda has bargained for. The character
of Jim is initially enigmatic, McMahon underplaying nicely.
Is he a good guy or a bad guy? Known predominantly for his
dark characters, the casting of McMahon is clever, the audience’s
expectations a loaded dice. Despite considerably less screen
time than his co-star, by the end of the film we feel we
know Jim as intimately as we’ve come to know Linda.
Shyann McClure and Courtney Taylor Burness also turn in excellent
performances as the couple’s two young daughters.
The style of the film is a disconcerting
mix of nightmarish surrealism and realism. A taught air
of menace pervades the film, claustrophobic, with hand-held
and close-up shots that jar the nerves and disorientate.
The plot lends itself to random events, as in a dream – why is there a dead
crow in the garden? Why are all the mirrors covered? – but
other moments, Jim’s funeral for instance, are so unstylised
that they trigger our own similar but personal memories,
bringing our own feelings into this emotional and chaotic
mix.
Whether you regard this film as satisfying
or not depends on your expectations: if you’re looking for a fast-paced
edge-of-your-seat shocker in which what happens is more important
than who it happens to, then chances are you will be disappointed.
The pace of Premonition is slow, but this only adds to the
mounting tension and is handled well, and the climax when
it comes is as huge as any you’ve seen on the screen
and a lot more emotive too. However, what many will miss
is that this is not really a film where the plot is most
important (which might seem strange given that it’s
the plot that drives the film) but how the characters themselves
respond to the events and to each other, and the ponderance
on the nature of time itself. Indeed, just try and not wonder
what would happen if you did this, or this, instead of that,
however small the change, in the days after you’ve
seen the film.
Intelligent, mature, philosophical, Premonition is more
akin to European arthouse than Hollywood blockbuster and
taken on that basis will amply reward the more discerning
viewer.
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