? Sandra Bullock is a
housewife with two daughters who finds herself suddenly widowed, but then the
next day her husband shows up as if everything’s fine. But then on the next
day, it’s not.
+ There are at least
two ways to go with this kind of story. You can make it a mystery thriller
where the focus is on what exactly has caused this bizarre reality, and how it
can be fixed. (The incredibly dopey Butterfly Effect and Final
Destination come to mind as taking this approach.) You can make it a
psychological drama about how one copes with a dual reality. (Bullock’s last
starring role, Lake House, did this pretty well.) Or you can mix it up,
like this does. It’s better on the first count, though. Bullock does a fair
impression of grief becoming bewilderment, and then something else.
- The thriller part is another story. Or, it’s the lesser
aspect of the same story. I would have been satisfied if the movie had just
gone on with the lead character leading two parallel lives, one as a widow and
the other continuing to be married, like a variation on Sliding Doors,
or The Family Man, or Happenstance. Anyway, I had a sort
of…feeling that this wouldn’t be like that. As the title promises, there’s a
foreshadowing element, and only Sandra can figure it out. The silly scene with
the priest explaining that this has happened before (but not why) doesn’t really
help (her or us). Without giving away the plot, some logic problems muddle the film’s mixed-up timeline, or it’s confusing, or both.
= **3/4 I had to
think about the movie to decide what I thought of it. I think it’s no Memento,
and it’s probably no Lake House either, but it held my interest,
paradoxical plot notwithstanding.
circulated via email 3/22/07 and posted 11/15/13
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