I have loved Sandra Bullock since I first saw her. When I saw her in Crash, I thought her acting had matured and that she might be able to leave romantic comedy behind for a great career as a dramatic actress. However, Bullock is not incapable of making bad choices, and Premonition is the kind of stinker that would set back anyone’s career.

What was everyone connected with this wannabe thriller thinking? It’s so boring, so lacking in suspense, that when the script turns moralistic toward the end, the audience is almost relieved to have something to latch on to. But an unscary thriller has nowhere to go.

Bullock plays Linda, an outwardly normal homemaker and mother who is told one afternoon that her husband, Jim (Julian McMahon), has been killed in an automobile accident. This puts her through an emotional wringer that only worsens when she wakes up the next morning to find Jim unharmed. From there on, whenever Linda wakes, it never seems to be the morning after the night she went to bed. Other mysteries abound: At times, her two daughters (Shyann McClure and Courtney Taylor Burness) appear sound and healthy; at others, the face of one of them is covered in lacerations.

Long after the audience has, Linda figures out that she is not having mere premonitions but is now living her life nonsequentially, the order of her days seeming to fall randomly and without purpose. Just like the lines in the script.

Perhaps Bette Davis could have pulled this off. Realizing this movie’s junk value, Davis might have acted it hysterically over the top, in her best What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? mode (but if she’d read the script, probably would never have done it at all). Instead, Bullock seems to sleepwalk through Premonition. As Linda goes through incredible changes, Bullock seems a wax dummy, unable to alter her movements and facial expression, even as Klaus Badelt’s high-pitched musical score screams out warnings and searing emotional cues. Bullock’s performance is embarrassing; she should get back to comedy. Here’s wishing her better luck next time out.

Mennan Yapo’s direction is most often inept, right down to the framing of nearly every scene: He seems to have already panned-and-scanned Premonition for 4:3 presentation within the film’s ostensible 2.35:1 widescreen frame. There’s plenty of space to fill, but Yapo seems to know nothing about that.

This time, I can’t even recommend waiting to rent the inevitable DVD edition. Nine months from now, when it’s time to list the Worst Movies of 2007, I’m sure this one will rank high. Call it a premonition.

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