Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Husband and wife Jim Hanson (Julian McMahon) and Linda Hanson (Sandra Bullock) are a seemingly happy couple who have bought a new house and are ready to move into their new house. Whilst on his way to a business trip, Jim is killed in a car accident which wife Linda only learns of 24 hours later. Linda is clearly devastated about Jim's death and is surprised when she wakes up the next day to find that Jim is alive and well. Over the next few days, Linda struggles to understand the parallel universe that she has slipped into and gradually starts to lose control of her sanity.Premonition essentially tries to be a combination of Groundhog Day & Memento (arguably two of the finest time-twisting films around) and you can't help but feel that this was not only a brave move, but also a misguided move (if you're going to meld two really good time-twisting films then you really need to make sure that what you're offering is top drawer in order to really impress audiences). In all honesty, what you get here is a serviceable story which passes 90 minutes by fairly painlessly, but one that is a little too predictable and one that only sporadically pushes the right buttons....For the most part the narrative here is rather simple (it's essentially told back to front for the most part a la Memento) which for those who have seen Memento will clearly be the weakest part of the film. Where this film is a little bit stronger is in many of the scenes in between where essentially it becomes difficult to establish between things that happen in Linda's head and things that happen on the chronological timeline (logic would suggest that the scenes involving Linda and one other person are in her imagination and scenes with a group of people are reality or are based on her perceived view of reality).What hurts this film slightly is that it is quite easy to predict what is happening or what is going to happen; a large bottle of red wine shoved right in front of the camera, several shots of Lithium pills being shoved under the camera - it's ham-fisted script writing and direction like this that ultimately does the film more harm than good. At one stage, it's suggested that the doctor didn't prescribe Lithium pills to Linda and that if he did that Lithium would actually be good for her - this made me wonder if the pills he prescribed were actually a Placebo which wouldn't do anything at all or again maybe all this was in her imagination. The end of the film sees Jim get killed in a car accident with Linda bearing witness to his death - this perhaps explains her psychological mind-set (seeing one's spouse getting killed in such an horrific manner would undoubtedly cause untold amounts of pain and upset). Whilst this doesn't necessarily excuse Linda's behaviour following the event it does at least make it more understandable. As mentioned, a strong aspect of this film is in its ability to try to differentiate between reality and fantasy - I half-wondered if a lot of the tender moments between Linda and Jim were down to Linda wanting to try to change the past and in believing that he was alive she may have felt that she can right some of the wrongs. The performances in this film are OK but it's Sandra Bullock who is really deserving of praise; she kind of holds this semi-predictable and rather dull story together and gives a performance that is never less than compelling (it does help that she's easy on the eye and despite being in her early 40's at this point she could still have passed for being in her late 20's or early 30's).Premonition is not the best film ever made, it's not original and certainly doesn't have the most interesting of stories. However, it is one of those films that does just about enough to make it worth watching and to its credit it never feels boring. For me though it probably would have worked better by being its own beast rather than trying, and ultimately failing, in trying to emulate earlier and frankly much better films.

"Premonition" had all the elements for being a great thriller, but it ended up as a somewhat mediocre mess. The jumping around days part was interesting, but it was ultimately the director who killed the potential of "Premonition".Normally I do like the performances in movies by Sandra Bullock, but she was way off in "Premonition". I didn't buy into her performance as a woman who had just lost her husband and the father of their daughters. It was like she wasn't fully there mentally, and that absent performance weighed down on the movie in overall. Julian McMahon did a good enough job as the husband and father.I was disappointed with the mediocrity of the movie, because I must admit that I had expected much more from a movie with Bullock and McMahon in the lead roles.The movie was also a bit shallow. The part with the affair in the making was just brought up briefly and then brushed well clear off the table. The characters could have used a bit more depth and background.All in all, not an overly impressive or memorable thriller. This is not a movie at the top of the recommendation list if you want to watch a good thriller.

There are good Sandra Bullock movies and then there are bad Sandra Bullock movies. Unfortunately, this one falls into the latter category, but not through any real fault of the star.I have no problem with non-linear movies or with movies that require the audience to think, but this movie tries too hard to create an usual situation just to be interesting but fails to add any reason for the situation's occurrence. The premise involves the apparently happy housewife (played by Ms. Bullock) receiving some tragic news at the outset. However, when she wakes the next day it is as if the tragedy never occurred. Next day, she awakes back in the world with the tragedy. Apparently, she is jumping ahead and back in time, which could be interesting, but the movie fails to offer any reason why this is occurring to this character. Is she suffering from a mental breakdown? Or if not, are we to assume that this time-travel happens to other people? If the situation is not one caused by a mental breakdown, why is Ms. Bullock's character singled out for this phenomena? No explanation is given or even alluded to. You will leave the movie scratching your head.

In "Premonition", a woman finds herself in a real-life nightmare--her life becomes a non-linear experience, a puzzle that she must sort out. And she must do it by herself, because if you start talking about premonitions, you sound like a crazy person.As viewers, we get to work on the same temporal puzzle that Linda Hanson (Sandra Bullock) is trying to unravel. At first, it seems that the time line will be difficult to follow, but the script does a good job of helping the viewer keep things straight.The film has its twists and turns, eventually morphing into an ethical puzzle, which deserved more attention. But that is a minor issue.Early in the story, Linda is told that her husband died in an accident. Bullock's portrayal of grief is one of the best I have seen. And it takes the viewer into her world immediately.There is a lot of moralizing built into the story, but it does not detract much. However, the film contains a lot of religious symbolism--to the point that I found it distracting. By the time we get to the end of the film, the story has the feeling of a roller-coaster--in a good way. Some reviewers hate the ending. There is no satisfying everyone on this issue. I can't say it ended strongly, but it was not a cop-out. The acting is good, including that of the children. The story is engaging. I have to deduct a little for the weak ending and the religious undertones that unnecessarily detract from the stronger story lines.