fbpx

PREMONITION

"Knowledge, Faith, Hope, and Love"

Watch:

What You Need To Know:

PREMONITION stars Sandra Bullock in a thrilling story about a married woman, Linda, who is told that her husband, Jim, has just died in a car crash. She begins to prepare for his funeral, but wakes up the next day beside him. Piecing together her premonitions, Linda must try to stop this tragedy from happening. As her week unfolds, Linda learns that her husband planned to have an affair with a co-worker. The adulterous tryst is where he was headed when the accident occurred. Linda must decide if “letting Jim die is the same as killing him.” She goes to her priest, who talks to her of faith, hope and love, which leads to the resolution.

PREMONITION follows in the vein of other out-of-time thrillers. Despite some weakness in its exposition, the story is entertaining and suspenseful. The acting performances are solid. The director makes some great shot choices that add to the movie's sense of suspense, displacement and eeriness. There is also a strong Christian worldview wherein the priest encourages Linda to find her faith, as well as love and hope. PREMONITION contains, however, some scary elements, violence and foul language.

Content:

(CC, BB, O, FR, LL, V, S, N, A, D, M,) Strong Christian worldview with strong moral premise including woman returns to church to seek answers from a priest who helps her with talk about faith, hope and love in a church setting, devotion to family and spouse supercedes one’s selfish and adulterous desires, and a Christian funeral is briefly portrayed, plus woman has unique psychic premonitions that may be bad (occult) or from God and some non-linear time shifts play a major role in the plot but they are resolved; eight obscenities (including one "f" word) and seven light profanities (mostly “my God”); sometimes scary violent content includes a woman trips on a toy and falls on a dead, bloody bird, young daughter runs into a glass door, gets cut up and is covered in blood and also has stitches and cuts on her face, a funeral casket falls over and it is implied that a decapitated head rolls out, a woman is restrained by two men and put into a mental hospital, woman forcibly injected with a sedative, lightning strikes a bird on a power line, and a very big car crash sequence with explosion implies the death of woman’s husband; some light sexual content includes married kissing in several sequences, husband plans to have adulterous affair but has second thoughts, and implied sex between married couple with them lying in bed afterward; naturalistic nudity includes two different shots of a woman’s back and shoulders while she is in the shower, upper naturalistic male nudity in shower and lying in bed, one woman shown in tight pajama tops in several different scenes, adulterous woman is seen on hotel bed in a nightgown, and woman is in a wet shirt from standing out in the rain; light alcohol consumption includes one scene of depicted wine drinking and two other sequences of implied wine drinking; no illegal drug use, but woman does smoke cigarettes in two different scenes and woman gets prescription medicine from psychologist although she ends up washing them down the sink; and, some miscellaneous immorality includes unhappy marriage leads man to lie to his wife and consider having an affair with a co-worker, although he later decides not to do stand by his marital commitments.

More Detail:

PREMONITION is the thrilling story of Linda (Sandra Bullock), a woman who is told that her husband, Jim (Julian McMahon), has just died in a car crash. She begins to prepare for his funeral, but the next day she wakes up beside him. Piecing together her premonitions, she must try to stop this tragedy from happening.

Feeling stale in her marriage and stuck in the day-to-day monotony of her life, Linda moves through her world with no hope of change. That is, of course, until major change occurs. A police officer arrives at her door and tells her that her husband has just died in a horrible car accident. Not until her husband is in the house the following morning does Linda feel it had only been a terrible dream. However, the next day, she awakens to find her house filled with family and close friends who are there to mourn with her. The day after that, her husband is alive and well. Realizing that she is living her days out of order, Linda fights to create a timeline so that she can stop the impending accident.

As Linda’s week unfolds, Linda learns that her husband planned to have an affair with a co-worker. The adulterous tryst is actually where he was headed when the accident occurred. Linda must then decide if “letting Jim die is the same as killing him.” She goes to her priest. He talks to her of faith and hope and love. She must then decide if she can stand by and let her husband die, or if she will fight to save not only her marriage but also his life.

PREMONITION follows in the vein of other out-of-time thrillers such as MEMENTO. Linda’s overwhelming time displacement adds tension to the story. Overall, the movie is very good. The acting performances are solid, and the director makes some great shot choices that add to the sense of displacement and eeriness. There is also a strong Christian tone with the priest who encourages Linda to once again find her faith, as well as love and hope. The discussion about Christian virtues with the priest leads to some positive, morally uplifting, thought-provoking outcomes. Thus, the movie seems to have a strong Christian worldview in the end.

In criticism, there are a few major timeline discrepancies and continuity errors. When doing an out-of-time thriller such as this, the creators should have taken quite a bit more care to remain consistent. This, of course, is the major setback for the movie.

The movie also contains some violence (such as the car crash) and some disturbing imagery that may be too realistic for younger audiences. There is some strong language at points, including one use of the “f” word. There is also the immoral issue of a husband contemplating an adulterous affair, although he does decide not to because of his family priorities.

Those objectionable points are the reason for the CAUTIONARY rating for younger audiences. However, many older teenagers and adults in many, if not most, Christian communities probably will enjoy this out-of-time thriller that contains a strong message of Christian virtues and moral values.

Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.


Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.