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Out of Time Police chief Matthias Whitlock gets involved with the wife of a friend, leading him deeper and deeper into trouble he may not be able to get out of.
We all like Denzel Washington. He’s played a lot of good guys, he won an Oscar for playing a pretty bad guy, and here he plays a good guy who’s done something bad. We root for him, of course, because he’s Denzel Washington and the protagonist. But it’s always interesting to me when a movie asks its audience to hope that the main character gets away with something we would not normally smile upon. (See also The Score and Gone in 60 Seconds. On second thought, just see The Score.)
Out of Time is a thriller, and it is thrilling. But it’s not all slam-bang-zip-pow, and that’s a good thing. I’ve always felt that slam-bang-zip-pow is best when used efficiently. The film takes its time with the first act, setting up Whitlock’s relationships and histories with his ex-wife Alex (Eva Mendes), his lover Anne Merai (Sanaa Lathan), and his friend Chris, who is Anne Merai’s husband (Dean Cain). That’s right, the Superman guy’s in the movie, and he’s effective playing a character who’s nothing like Superman. He can’t even fly, which is just as well, because the movie wouldn’t have been nearly as believable that way.
As it is, the movie is just believable enough for us to accept everything that happens, but as the tension rises to a boiling point it’s just unlikely enough to be exciting. Tension rising to a boiling point… that’s not a mixed metaphor, is it? Anyway, I don’t want to give away any details here, but who knew sending a fax or using a scanner could be so exciting? Lots of suspense thanks to a good script and some tight editing. There’s one plot point toward the end that could have severely lowered my opinion of the movie, but it’s handled in such a way that I’m going to allow it. That’s right, I said I’m going to allow it.
A few random thoughts: Eva Mendes is 29, and Denzel Washington is 49. I guess it’s possible that they were married, but I didn’t buy it 100%. Their performances do help to sell the idea. Also, the phone number 555-0199 is used at one point; if I remember right, 555 numbers from 0200 on now exist in real life. Finally, where did the ------ ------ come from? (Again, I don’t want to give anything away, but I really do want to know whose ------ those were.)
Out of Time proves that a Hollywood thriller can still be exciting and not too predictable, and stuff. On my famous scale of Yay!/Yeah…/Yecch!, this one gets a Yay!
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