Denzel Washington
releases a new film around the same time in the fourth
quarter each year. His films typically do well
during that slot and Americans just love watching him on
screen. He might be one of the most likable and
universally received actors in Hollywood today. He
can do action ("Training Day"), he can do drama
("Antwone Fisher"), and he can even do comedy
("Much Ado About Nothing"). Alas, he can
also do wrong ("John Q"). And wrong is
exactly what he has done with "Out of Time", a
new film which is pretty much just a collection of scenes
from all of Denzel's films.
Washington stars as Matt Lee Whitlock, the chief of police
in a very sleepy, very normal Florida town. His
marriage with wife Alexandra (Eva Mendes) is falling
apart, thanks in large part to his steamy affair with Ann
Harrison (Sanaa Lathan), whose husband Chris (Dean Cain)
is more than typically jealous and aggressive. When
Whitlock discovers that his lover is dying from lung and
liver cancer, the plan is that he will steal $500,000 of
drug money from work so she can receive treatment abroad,
after which she will cash in her husbands life insurance
policy to pay him back. Unfortunately, both Lathan
and Cain die in a suspicious fire, and Washington is left
as the prime suspect, since his name was on the life
insurance policy and he was seen around the house the
night before by a nosey neighbor.
Now, for the dissection. First off, this plot if as clichéd
and contrived as I have ever seen. Director Carl
Franklin just expects us to accept most of the facts he
lays forth, without even thinking about how absurd they
are. I hate films where the director just
pre-supposes that the audience is so naive and ignorant
that they won't realize when the wool is being pulled over
their eyes. Here, he just expects us to swallow
melodrama after melodrama. Washington is trying to
save his lover from dying of cancer. In "John
Q", he was trying to save his son from dying of
cancer. The moral is -- Denzel Washington does not
need to have anything to do with films that involve people
dying of cancer.
Secondly, it made me mad that the performances were so
good and the dialogue was so horrible. The dialogue
is a 2 on a scale of 10. The acting in the film
brings that 2 up to a 5, but fifty percent is not near
enough to made up for everything else that drags this
flick down. Washington is strong, as always, in the
lead role, but it is Eva Mendes as his ex-wife and Dean
Cain as his lover's husband who shine, especially Cain,
who is as vile as we have ever seen him.
Performances good. Words bad.
"Out of Time" left no lasting impression with
me, other than my liking the scenery. This film
makes Florida look very appealing, and not in that
"Just Cause" alligators and crawfish kind of
way. Director Carl Franklin can make quality cinema,
which is evident from "One False Move", but this
film does not rank up there with his best efforts; in
fact, it ranks down there with his worst. People
will flock to see this picture, I am sure, and it will
probably be a decent success. I only wish Washington
and Franklin, as a team, could have produced something
more fruitful and more entertaining.
