AFTER an engrossing and unsettling first 30 minutes, I had a spooky premonition about Mennan Yapo's time-bending psychological thriller: that all of the intriguing questions about the immutability of fate posed by screenwriter Bill Kelly would amount to nothing.

And that Sandra Bullock would once again prove that when it comes to playing everyday women in peril, nobody does it better.

Alas, my fears were confirmed as Premonition revealed the secrets of its serpentine plot, slotting each piece of the puzzle neatly into place with cold, clinical efficiency.

Housewife Linda Hanson (Bullock) is blissfully happy with her husband Jim (Julian McMahon) and young daughters.

In an instant, her carefully ordered existence shatters into a million pieces.

"I'm sorry to tell you this. Your husband was in a car accident. He died on the scene," a police officer tells her.

"When?" she stutters.

"Yesterday."

"That's not possible," gasps Linda. "I just heard his voice on the answering machine."

With her mother Joanne (Kate Nelligan) staying to help out with the funeral arrangements, Linda heads for bed and wakes the next morning to discover that Jim is still alive.

"It was only a dream," Jim tells his confused spouse, "everything is gonna be fine."

Except when Linda wakes the next morning, Jim is dead again, Bridgette's face is horribly scarred and a doctor is threatening to have her sectioned.

Caught in some strange hinterland between past, present and future, Linda races against fractured time to understand her jumbled memories.

Premonition is an entertaining but ultimately rather hollow journey into the unknown.

The film benefits greatly from Bullock's lead performance, while Bill Kelly's screenplay stays the right side of ludicrous for the majority of the 96 minutes, only losing its way a couple of times.

  • See it at the Empire