Interesting choice of title for a movie that seems to be in absolutely no rush to get to the point.
Good-guy police chief Matt Whitlock (Denzel Washington) has gotten himself in a bit of a pickle. His girlfriend Ann (Sanaa Lathan) just found out she has terminal cancer. Her husband Chris (Dean Cain) is jealous and abusive. Matt’s stolen the illegal drug money he was so respected for nabbing and has given it to Ann so she can get alternative medicine. He figures it can get replaced by the life insurance money he’s now got his name involved in. Oh, and now Ann and Chris are killed by arson right where Matt was last seen! And Matt’s estranged wife (Eva Mendes) is the detective assigned to the case! Oh my!
Well, figuring out how to write the synopsis without giving away the whole story was a more tense experience than this nonsense. Out of Time takes about an hour to decide it’s going to be a mystery/thriller and not some romance drama. 1991’s Ricochet (in which Denzel Washington is an innocent cop accused of murder) had certain things going for it that allowed it to partially transcend the plethora of contrivances and campiness. It had a few name actors, a strong and identifiable villain and a series of nail-biting yet unlikely action sequences. Out of Time has none of this, except Denzel Washington.
Washington does a decent job, as expected. Eva Mendes, while not delivering poorly, is not particularly convincing as a murder detective, and not just because of her incredible looks. There is also virtually no chemistry between herself and Washington, which is a shame since we know from the moment we meet her what purpose she serves in the script. Sanaa Lathan isn’t bad either, but Ann’s character makes very little sense and is hard to take seriously. Dean Cain, who I always thought of as a B-tv star (as opposed to a B-movie actor), is surprisingly sturdy and buyable as the violent husband. John Billingsley plays the annoying comic relief sidekick and, while he has some funny lines, the character is written to such heights of absurdity that the whole movie seems plain stupid.
Director Carl Franklin (One False Move) makes a series of bizarre and ineffective choices with this film. Why, for example, did he choose a soundtrack that seems better fitted for a Weekend at Bernie’s sequel? And why would he tolerate so many inconsequential moments in a film that should be extremely tense and fast paced? Perhaps it is David Collard’s script that’s made Franklin totally disinterested in following any established rules for creating tension. Every time I thought something compelling was going to take place, the film cuts to a long slow scene of romance dialogue.
There’s one mildly entertaining moment involving Washington fighting someone from a collapsing balcony railing, but other than that, the film is downright boring. Franklin wraps up the “climax” within two or three minutes of people surprising each other from behind and shooting at each other – all very hum-drum. And by this point, it really doesn’t matter who’s framed who for what. It’s time to go home and rent something good. The crime’s only centered around a relatively small amount of money anyway.
Why is this police chief able to make scanning software work at lightning speed to doctor evidence? I kept thinking if our hero’s so dumb to get himself involved in all this, then why is he so lucky getting himself out of situations? Could it be solely because the script has his pursuers arriving at just the right moment? Why does this character deserve such fantastic luck? Shouldn’t it be earned? C-
