I have a premonition that anyone going to see the movie “Premonition” will exit the theater with a blank look on their face. You will also experience a headache from trying to figure out the plot holes that the director had in piecing together the events that took place.

Premonition
Directed By: Mennan Yapo
Starring: Sandra Bullock , Julian McMahon, Nia Long, etc.
Releasing: March 16, 2007
Rating: PG-13
Running time: 110 min.

The movie was actually interesting, until the end. Despite the fact that the timelines jumped around like Mexican jumping beans, I was caught up in the mystery as it unfolded. Trying to keep up with the back and forth timelines as you learn new evidence leading up to the main event, the husband’s death. Although, I was completely confused as to which day was happening and in what sequence (I still have no idea thinking back), it didn’t really bother me too much while I was involved with the characters, and the storyline. The trouble came towards the end of the movie. The husband, Jim Hanson, (played by Julian McMahon) is supposed to die in a horrible car accident, but his wife, Linda (Sandra Bullock) finds out about this accident prematurely by some odd method of premonition and waking dreams that are really never fully explained (how could it be? Just accept it).

I was accepting of the timelines bouncing back and forth, and of the mysterious events that seem to happen to Linda and her family as this film moved along, because I expected the pieces to come together and the truth to become clear at the end. However, the sequence of events and the events that conspire really do not come together at all. The final day that she experiences with her husband creates its own loop-hole. I don’t want to ruin the film here, for anyone who does want to see it after reading the reviews for it, so I’m going to try to be vague about actual details in the film.

There’s no way the events leading up to Jim’s accident could have happened in the order and manner that the film portrays as the evidence unfolds. Unfortunately for the viewer, namely me, I did not discover this little problem until the very end of the film. There is even a moment at the end of the film that would probably have left me with a much better feeling for the movie, if the director had ended the movie about 10 minutes earlier than he did. I can’t help wondering why the ending was the way it was? Why not end it at the final day, when all of the events finally come together, instead of in a future date, which has no real bearing on the rest of the film. The ending seemed almost like an after thought, maybe pushed by Hollywood in order to bring their public to a conclusion that was solid?

I spent over an hour after the movie running through the evidence from the events, and none of it really ever comes together. Events that cross paths early-on, seem further and further apart as you look back on each of the days and events that transpired. Honestly, I love Sandra Bullock, but what was she thinking? Did she read through to the end of the script before doing this film? Did the director, Mennan Yapo, change the ending, and is Sandra Bullock just as confused as I am now that the film is showing on the big screen? It’s a shame really, because the characters are real, and likable, and the movie seems to have a lot of potential, but the continuity is completely lost in this film. Isn’t it the director’s job to check the continuity of the events and make sure the editor is bringing the events together in an understandable fashion? This movie really doesn’t add up to anything solid by the end.

Well, good luck with this one. Let me know if you figure out exactly what happens, and if you have any clue at all why this movie ends the way it does. I’d really like to know if someone else is able to see through the jumbled pieces of this film to make real sense of what the director was trying to portray, because I haven’t got a clue.

(Images Courtesy of Sony Pictures)