The Premonition

No, not the one with Sandra Bullock, the one filmed in 1976.

The tomato-meter shows one "fresh" rating, but I'm going to have to respectfully disagree. I found very little laudable about this film except its ambitions.

A few moments captured my attention. The opening scenes seemed very verite and a little artsy, especially while the camera followed the mime as he warmed up, but these few artistic shots seemed to have little coherence to the film as a whole. They follow the beautiful biological mother very sympathetically, which served to support a particular interpretation of the film, but did not progress the plot. The viewer experiences some confusion of sympathies, especially when he or she compares the two women, and finds the adoptive mother less attractive, and much more hysterical, if not more irrational.

One or two moments of shaky camera-work add to the confusion of a scene here and there, but also detract from the seeming eeriness of the remaining smooth, calm panning shots, the latter of which served at least to build suspense

The actors gave mediocre performances. Both of the adoptive parents paused for several seconds before launching themselves at would-be kidnappers in mad hysteria. Their screams grated, displayed an identical madness to the visions of a murderer and kidnapper.

The director chose to portray a moment of possible infidelity before the kidnapping drama emerged. These few scenes deepen the adoptive father's character, but make the film a little tawdry. The sub-plot doesn't support the science vs. parascience discussion, and the whole subplot is abandoned when the object of Miles' secondary affections starts helping his wife discover her abnormal connections.

The main complain I must make about this film is inconsistency; inconsistency of sympathy, camera work, treatment of major themes, and style. Although it is called a horror film, I found it more disturbing (in an annoying way) than frightening.

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