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Out of Time
Denzel Washington and Carl Franklin, star and director respectively of Devil In A Blue Dress, reunite for this neo-noir thriller
Matt Lee Whitlock (Washington) is the under-challenged chief of police in the small Florida town of Banyan Key. Though his career offers little excitement, his affair with Anne (Lathan), a married local woman, provides more than enough thrills. When Anne is suddenly diagnosed with terminal cancer, Whitlock plunders the cash seized in a rare drug bust so she can pay for experimental cancer treatment in Switzerland. Soon after taking possession of the money, Anne and her violent husband's charred remains are found in their burnt out residence. With a murder investigation that will inevitably weave back to the chief, Whitlock is forced to stay one step ahead of his colleagues in trying to discover what really happened to Anne and, more importantly, the money. You soon lose count of how many 'just in the nick of time' moments take place as Washington strives to avoid being implicated in the case being investigated by his estranged wife (Mendes). Though these moments (deleting telephone records, mishearing instructions, pretending to question possible leads, etc) become excessive, they remain generally acceptable. However, a number of other factors of the movie are not so admissible. The script doesn't add up, nor does the unconvincing relationship between Washington and Mendes. Franklin's direction (whose previous movie was the not-so-thrilling legal thriller High Crimes) is once again prosaic. It is the director's failure to generate excitement and tension at the obvious peaks of the plot that is the most frustrating element. Washington's character is also a major problem, as we are presented with a character whose attributes vary so wildly during the course of the film that we neither connect nor understand the type of individual that he is. Not once do we feel genuinely concerned for Washington's character; his complete absence of any panic onscreen is the gravest error in the entire film. Verdict A by-the-numbers thriller that never exploits its true potential. By the closing credits, the script has numerous loose ends that are left dangling. |
