Knight at the Movies Archives
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Sandra Bullock tries another time machine movie, Queen Latifah enlivens an HBO film focusing on the emotional fallout from AIDS
It seems that as our culture has become more tech savvy, more gadget crazed, time machine fixated films have become a more
saleable scenario to audiences used to responding to entertainment in increments of seconds rather than minutes and hours.
These movies – and there are many of them – seem to come in two types – the romance in which two mismatched lovers from
different time periods are trying desperately to hook up or the thriller in which the protagonist is trying desperately to prevent
something from happening in the past or future. Oddly, with Premonition, Sandra Bullock has now starred in a film based in each
of these categories within the last year (The Lake House was the romantic one). The Lake House was just what romance addicts
ordered but Premonition isn’t likely to entirely please all the audiences it promises to satisfy.
Bullock plays housewife Linda Hanson who awakens one morning to a message on the answering machine from her husband Jim
(“Nip/Tuck’s” über sexy Julian McMahon) that references a conversation she can’t recall. With a knock at the door Linda’s world
crashes down as she’s told that her husband has been killed in a car crash. Soon her mother (Kate Nelligan) arrives to help with the
couple’s two daughters and to plan the funeral. Linda falls asleep but when she wakes up, in a mixture of terror and relief, finds Jim
alive and well sipping coffee in the breakfast nook. Either the car crash never happened or it’s going to happen and Linda has gone
back in time a few days or maybe now she’s in the real time and when she wakes up she’s in the future when Jim is dead or she’s in
the here and now and aware that he’s going to die or maybe it’s Friday the 13th and the kitchen clock is going to strike 12:30pm
and she’ll remember that next Thursday is Saint Patrick’s day and she must get the girls their lunch boxes packed because last
night will be tomorrow – the day before Halloween night which is just 20 minutes down the road from turn left and it’s Christmas Day!
Okay, now read the previous sentence back and see if you can make heads or tails of it. Of course you can’t – there’s no logic to it,
no real way to figure out in tried and true Miss Marple fashion what the clues to the mystery are, what the rules to this particular
“time bend” are, etc. – and the same is true for roughly the first half of Premonition. As the days progress the frustration with all the
odd happenings pile up to the ceiling. This is a psychological mystery so mystifying that part of you finally yells “uncle” – the
movie's like a perverse, horror version of Ground Hog Day. And worst of all, there is no satisfaction in the all important time gimmick
(as there was in Frequency, for example).
At one point Bullock visits a shrink and after pouring out her story about how Jim is going to die on Wednesday but this is Thursday
or Friday or Tuesday or, oh dear, I can’t remember exactly, he dryly comments, “Seems a little complicated” to which I wanted to yell
out, “You can say that again buster.”
It does slowly dawn that the relationship between Jim and Linda hasn’t been exactly hunky dory for quite awhile and that Linda is
dead inside and that this might be the real problem underlying everything but honestly, logic plays so little a part here that
explanation could be as daft as the stupefying climax of the picture (which sorts out everything and nothing in one fell swoop). And
unfortunately, after awhile Bullock’s strong audience rapport wears thin. Neither Premonition nor The Lake House utilized the actress’
innate girl next door, likeableness. The Bullock of the Miss Congeniality pictures and Two Weeks Notice is noticeably absent from
these two efforts and that is unfortunate. The sunny Bullock (even when mixed with a bit of anxiety) is much more welcome than
the dour, anxious one we’ve gotten in these last two pictures (or the bitchy, nasty one in Crash). At least in The Lake House Bullock’s
doom and gloom was perfectly mirrored by co-star Keanu Reeves. McMahon is stuck with a nothing, back seat of a role, though he
does what he can with it (and to imagine McMahon in the Reeves role in The Lake House is to envision an instant classic -- now that's
chemistry!).
My hunch is that Premonition won’t really please anyone because in the end the movie, part mystery, part thriller, part romance falls
in on itself and all those elements cancel each other out – and cancel any lasting impression the film will have on audiences.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
All month long you can see Queen Latifah on HBO in Life Support. Based on a story inspired by the sister of the film’s co-writer-
director, Nelson George, the movie has the good fortune of having Latifah as both its star and Executive Producer (along with Jaime
Foxx). The consistently likeable actress plays Ana Willis, an HIV positive former drug user who has put her life back together but not
without consequences. Ana now works for a group providing counseling and outreach on AIDS to the Brooklyn community where they
live but emotional scars remain. Ana’s relationship with her teenage daughter Kelly (newcomer Rachel Nicks) and her mother (Anna
Deavere Smith) where the girl is still living remains tenuous. When Kelly’s gay friend Omari (Evan Ross), who also has AIDS, goes
missing, old festering wounds are reopened.
One of Life Support’s biggest highlights is the interaction between Ana and her co-volunteers who meet and talk about the problems
the disease has brought them. These scenes, reminiscent of the women’s bitch fests in Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever, crackle with energy
and Latifah as the fictional Ana effortlessly and compassionately matches up with the other women (playing themselves).
The film incorporates a lot of social issues revolving around the insidious pandemic but to its credit doesn’t try to tie up the problems
facing its characters with neat solutions. The high pedigree of the star and production team (along with an excellent supporting cast
headed by Deavere Smith and Wendell Pierce) also helps keep the movie a notch above the treacle of an After School Special.
Earnest, thoughtful and entertaining.
saleable scenario to audiences used to responding to entertainment in increments of seconds rather than minutes and hours.
These movies – and there are many of them – seem to come in two types – the romance in which two mismatched lovers from
different time periods are trying desperately to hook up or the thriller in which the protagonist is trying desperately to prevent
something from happening in the past or future. Oddly, with Premonition, Sandra Bullock has now starred in a film based in each
of these categories within the last year (The Lake House was the romantic one). The Lake House was just what romance addicts
ordered but Premonition isn’t likely to entirely please all the audiences it promises to satisfy.
Bullock plays housewife Linda Hanson who awakens one morning to a message on the answering machine from her husband Jim
(“Nip/Tuck’s” über sexy Julian McMahon) that references a conversation she can’t recall. With a knock at the door Linda’s world
crashes down as she’s told that her husband has been killed in a car crash. Soon her mother (Kate Nelligan) arrives to help with the
couple’s two daughters and to plan the funeral. Linda falls asleep but when she wakes up, in a mixture of terror and relief, finds Jim
alive and well sipping coffee in the breakfast nook. Either the car crash never happened or it’s going to happen and Linda has gone
back in time a few days or maybe now she’s in the real time and when she wakes up she’s in the future when Jim is dead or she’s in
the here and now and aware that he’s going to die or maybe it’s Friday the 13th and the kitchen clock is going to strike 12:30pm
and she’ll remember that next Thursday is Saint Patrick’s day and she must get the girls their lunch boxes packed because last
night will be tomorrow – the day before Halloween night which is just 20 minutes down the road from turn left and it’s Christmas Day!
Okay, now read the previous sentence back and see if you can make heads or tails of it. Of course you can’t – there’s no logic to it,
no real way to figure out in tried and true Miss Marple fashion what the clues to the mystery are, what the rules to this particular
“time bend” are, etc. – and the same is true for roughly the first half of Premonition. As the days progress the frustration with all the
odd happenings pile up to the ceiling. This is a psychological mystery so mystifying that part of you finally yells “uncle” – the
movie's like a perverse, horror version of Ground Hog Day. And worst of all, there is no satisfaction in the all important time gimmick
(as there was in Frequency, for example).
At one point Bullock visits a shrink and after pouring out her story about how Jim is going to die on Wednesday but this is Thursday
or Friday or Tuesday or, oh dear, I can’t remember exactly, he dryly comments, “Seems a little complicated” to which I wanted to yell
out, “You can say that again buster.”
It does slowly dawn that the relationship between Jim and Linda hasn’t been exactly hunky dory for quite awhile and that Linda is
dead inside and that this might be the real problem underlying everything but honestly, logic plays so little a part here that
explanation could be as daft as the stupefying climax of the picture (which sorts out everything and nothing in one fell swoop). And
unfortunately, after awhile Bullock’s strong audience rapport wears thin. Neither Premonition nor The Lake House utilized the actress’
innate girl next door, likeableness. The Bullock of the Miss Congeniality pictures and Two Weeks Notice is noticeably absent from
these two efforts and that is unfortunate. The sunny Bullock (even when mixed with a bit of anxiety) is much more welcome than
the dour, anxious one we’ve gotten in these last two pictures (or the bitchy, nasty one in Crash). At least in The Lake House Bullock’s
doom and gloom was perfectly mirrored by co-star Keanu Reeves. McMahon is stuck with a nothing, back seat of a role, though he
does what he can with it (and to imagine McMahon in the Reeves role in The Lake House is to envision an instant classic -- now that's
chemistry!).
My hunch is that Premonition won’t really please anyone because in the end the movie, part mystery, part thriller, part romance falls
in on itself and all those elements cancel each other out – and cancel any lasting impression the film will have on audiences.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
All month long you can see Queen Latifah on HBO in Life Support. Based on a story inspired by the sister of the film’s co-writer-
director, Nelson George, the movie has the good fortune of having Latifah as both its star and Executive Producer (along with Jaime
Foxx). The consistently likeable actress plays Ana Willis, an HIV positive former drug user who has put her life back together but not
without consequences. Ana now works for a group providing counseling and outreach on AIDS to the Brooklyn community where they
live but emotional scars remain. Ana’s relationship with her teenage daughter Kelly (newcomer Rachel Nicks) and her mother (Anna
Deavere Smith) where the girl is still living remains tenuous. When Kelly’s gay friend Omari (Evan Ross), who also has AIDS, goes
missing, old festering wounds are reopened.
One of Life Support’s biggest highlights is the interaction between Ana and her co-volunteers who meet and talk about the problems
the disease has brought them. These scenes, reminiscent of the women’s bitch fests in Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever, crackle with energy
and Latifah as the fictional Ana effortlessly and compassionately matches up with the other women (playing themselves).
The film incorporates a lot of social issues revolving around the insidious pandemic but to its credit doesn’t try to tie up the problems
facing its characters with neat solutions. The high pedigree of the star and production team (along with an excellent supporting cast
headed by Deavere Smith and Wendell Pierce) also helps keep the movie a notch above the treacle of an After School Special.
Earnest, thoughtful and entertaining.
Two Women:
Premonition-Life Support
3-14-07 Windy City Times Knight at the Movies Column*
By Richard Knight, Jr.
Premonition-Life Support
3-14-07 Windy City Times Knight at the Movies Column*
By Richard Knight, Jr.
*I didn't screen Premonition until after my print deadline (300 was my lead review there) so have decided to include it here.
