"Premonition" | It's just a hunch, but you might feel a little lost

There's a moment in the feverishly convoluted thriller "Premonition" when Sandra Bullock, whose character is enduring what can only be called a very dark version of "Groundhog Day," whips out a marker and paper and begins making a chart. Her husband, it seems, has died in a car accident, or maybe he hasn't; maybe the accident hasn't happened yet, and her week has somehow repeated itself, for reasons unknown. On the paper, she frantically scribbles the days of the week, and what happened each day and who it happened to, and it was all I could do to keep from reaching up into that screen and grabbing that chart for myself. Perhaps the studio might consider making a small handout version, to be thrust at moviegoers who leave the cinema mumbling "um, what?"

"Premonition," directed by German filmmaker Mennan Yapo and written by Bill Kelly, is a very odd film, but you can't quite dismiss it (in the way that all but the most hopeless romantics can dismiss Bullock's other recent flirtation with trippy time juggling, "The Lake House"). Behind the hypercomplicated details of its plot is a very simple story that actually resonates: that of a marriage turned perfunctory and stale. Linda (Bullock's character) and her husband, Jim (Julian McMahon), are shown in the movie's prologue as starry-eyed, blissfully happy newlyweds. Fast-forward about a decade and add two daughters to the mix, and they're barely connecting, moving through their busy lives in parallel.

When the movie begins with the news of Jim's death (delivered by a cop so creepily odd, you know something's not quite right), we don't know anything about their marriage, but as the details fall into place, Linda's grief becomes more complex and more meaningful: She's not just grieving Jim, but their marriage. Bullock, a consistently underrated actress who's very good here, is a welcome point of stillness in the whirling complications of the plot. As the action screeches back and forth from present to past to I-know-not-what, she keeps her performance quiet (except for a few essential moments of rage), simple and clear. You connect with Linda, even as the movie leaves you behind.

Thanks to Bullock, and to some gripping, swirling camerawork by Torsten Lippstock, some of the scenes are genuinely haunting, such as a moment at Jim's funeral when a distraught Linda demands to open the casket. But "Premonition" works hard at wearing out its welcome, with numerous scenes that don't seem to add up and too many characters who feel underwritten (particularly Linda's best friend, played by Nia Long).

Ultimately, a scene in a doctor's office hits perhaps a little close to home. "It all seems a little complicated," says the doctor, pondering her story. "Tell me about it," echoes Linda.

Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725 or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com