Premonition

Sandra Bullock is Linda Hanson who has a successful, gorgeous husband and two cute moppets. One day the sheriff tells her hubby Jim (Julian McMahon) has been killed the previous day in what we news types call a 'horror smash'. The rest of her day is pretty bad, but when she gets up after a night's sleep, it's madness: Jim is alive. She goes to bed after another bad day (OK, hubby is alive, but she's understandably confused) and wakes up to find he's dead again. And so on - Jim's alive, Jim's dead, Linda's going off her head.

Linda realises this is no linear week - she's going back and forth in a seven-day period, and hasn't yet hit the day Jim died. In a bid to stave off complete madness/keep Jim alive she begins to chart what happens on each day. Can her foreknowledge forestall tragedy?

There are two main problems with this film - firstly, you can see the emotional resolution coming a mile off, secondly, you're not actually sure what's happened by the end of play. Director Mennan Yapo and writer Bill Kelly do a superb job of tying up loose ends, making little things that were mentioned on Friday make sense when we get to Sunday, or whatever, but while the plot is laid out with mathematical precision, you can' t work out what the story was. Linda's on a loop, going loopy, but where did it start? What's really happened to her? How did she escape the time twister?

Certainly the title is wrong - this isn't a woman having premonitions, this is a victim of time travel, or quantum realities touching, or something. I'd like a fair chance of working out what.

That the film is nevertheless an absorbing watch is pretty much down to Bullock. She commands the screen, never letting you lose a grip on her emotions - you want to get to the end of the journey with her. And that's why it's so frustrating that, annoying coda aside, you're not sure where that is. The rest of the cast are fine, but any number of players could have filled their roles. This is Bullock's ballgame. (Note for Hollywood actresses with power - if you're in a time travel weepie and your previous starring role was time travel weepie The Lake House, don't agree to a scene in which you're standing by a lake, considering a new home.)