Premonition (2007)

Directed by: Mennan Yapo | 110 minutes | thriller | Actors: Sandra Bullock, Julian McMahon, Shyann McClure, Courtney Taylor Burness, Nia Long, Marc Macaulay, Kate Nelligan, Irene Ziegler

‘Premonition’ starts as mundane as it gets. Jim (McMahon) buys a house for Linda (Bullock). Jim and Linda build a love nest. Jim and Linda have two daughters. Jim goes to the office and Linda is a housewife. Until one day the sheriff rings the doorbell with a tidings of doom. Jim was hit by a truck and died. Linda’s world collapses. Her mother comes to see her and the two girls. At the end of the day, Linda falls asleep on the couch, exhausted.

But the next morning Linda wakes up in her own bed. The guest room where her mother slept is empty. And as she walks downstairs, she is dismayed to find Jim about to leave for the office. After this relatively long run-up, the story jumps back and forth in time. There are days when Jim is alive and days when Linda wakes up again in the nightmare. In one world she finds clues from the other. And each time she steps forward a little further in time. Linda feels she can avert fate. There is just very little time. The horror scenario after Jim’s death becomes more and more horrific, but she doesn’t seem to get a grip on the world Jim still lives in. Grip to turn the tide. The film has a Hollywood atmosphere. Beautiful man, beautiful woman and beautiful children who are also very good. And of course a picture of a house. In short, a cornflakes family. However, as a contrast to the shocking events, this has little effect. The characters don’t get enough face for that.

Still, the constant switching between the two worlds is ingenious. It keeps you sharp and provides the necessary tension that a thriller requires. Sandra Bullock does a good job as the wary but shocked housewife who tries to take control of her life. The not entirely predictable outcome shows the impossibility of this. And a helpful pastor articulates this moral of the story, also in Hollywood style: “Every day you live can be a miracle.”