This film has an intriguing hook, what if we could stop a tragedy from happening to someone we love? Would we be able to do it? The deeper we go into this modern day science fiction drama, the less the audience ultimately cares what the answers might be. “Premonition” has a promising start, but loses the interest of the viewer half-way through and is ultimately never able to regain it.
Sandra Bullock (“Miss Congeniality”) stars in this one trick pony of a film. She is Linda Hanson, a married mother with a nice upper-middle class life, two young daughters, and a husband, played by Julian McMahon (“Fantastic Four”), who is a successful businessman that seemingly spends a lot of time away from home. A traumatic event effects the lives of the Hansons, when Mr. Hanson is killed in a car accident while away on business. Mrs. Hanson lives through the hardest day of her life, as she has to pick up the pieces and do her best to comfort her daughters. The next day she wakes up, and it is several days before the accident, and everyone is acting as though nothing has happened. Bullock bounces back and forth from the near past to the near future, the only one who knows what is going to happen, and trying desperately to find a way to change it.
I have no problem with Bullock’s performance in this movie. Whereas other actresses might feel the need to over-act the emotional turmoil Linda Hanson experiences, Bullock keeps her character in a state of subdued shock, with only occasional sudden emotional outbreaks. Instead, it’s the story around Bullock that is the problem, not the lead actress herself. Whereas initially, Mr. Hanson is presented to the audience as a wonderful husband and attentive father, the rest of the film is used to tear down the man that the audience is supposed to want to be saved. The more that we learn about the husband, the less we want to save him from his onrushing death, and the less Bullock’s character seems to care about him. When the whole point of the story is that a loved one’s death can be avoided, thanks to cosmic and human intervention, why waste this story on saving a self-obsessed jerk with a wandering eye?
“Premonition” has the opportunity at the very end, to save itself from mediocrity, but misses the chance and ends in a way that is neither insightful, entertaining, or original. Peter Stormare an interesting and unique character actor, who has recently been a mob boss on television‘s “Prison Break“ and the devil in “Constantine“, is miscast in the role of a mental health professional whom Bullock seeks advice from. This proves to be a throwaway supporting role that Stormare should have passed on. Bullock has had several underachieving films lately, and this one will not break that trend. I wish I had the intuition that “Premonition” wouldn’t be worth the price of admission; so heed my advice now and save your money for another film.
2 out of 5