|
Out of Time: DVD January 4, 2004 |
||
|
**This is a condensed
version of a review posted 10/6/03** There is a scene in the first half of “Out of Time”, the 2003 Denzel Washington thriller, recently released on DVD, that is worth the rental price in and of itself. The scene involves the Chief of police of a small Florida Keys town, as he frantically tries to erase his name from phone records of a murder victim before the investigating detective sees them, via fax from the telephone department. Excuse the bad pun, but he is literally running out of time. This sequence is brilliant in the tension it builds, but the pure fun of “Out of Time” (better than most Denzel cookie cutter thrillers) is watching the Chief bob and weave, like a good boxer, everything and anything that could connect him with the double-homicide investigation he suddenly finds himself a part of. The fax sequence is one in a series of exciting, nail-biting moments in the first two thirds of the film that build quite a perplexing mystery story. The background goes that Chief Matt Lee Whitlock (Washington, in fine form) is having a torrid affair with Anne Harrison (Sanaa Lathan), the battered and beautiful wife of a washed-up ex-NFL quarterback. Anne and Matt seem happy, if only she’d leave her husband, but, as she says, “he needs me”. Complications arise when Anne, at the young age of 32, is diagnosed with terminal cancer, prompting Matt to get the bright idea of stealing $485,000 of evidence money so she can fly off to Switzerland, elude her scheming husband and his million dollar life insurance scam, and get some radical life saving treatment, “like you see on ’60 Minutes’”, says Matt. This isn’t smart, but Matt is blinded by the light of love (especially after his recent separation with his wife) and can’t see a con for what it’s worth. For one, stealing nearly half a million big ones from the DEA is not the best career move, and shouldn’t your little man inside scream STOP when your mistress suddenly nominates you as the sole beneficiary of her million dollar life insurance policy? It’s Hitchcockian the way we can sense Matt’s pending downfall while he continues to precede with no clue, like a ghost into the fog. “Is anybody happily married these days,” he jokes to his wise-cracking white sidekick, who finds it a bit ironic that the Captain is in such a mess, as the ink has yet to dry on his divorce papers. Things get good and exciting (after an uneven first act), as Matt rides along with the investigating detective, his ex-wife (go figure) as circumstances pop up pointing the accusatory finger squarely at him. We know he’s innocent, as does he, but what would Alex, his ex (Eva Mendes, gorgeous as ever) think about all of the overwhelming evidence suggesting he murdered the Harrison’s? There is, in order of difficulty to squirm out of; the flowers he sent to her office, the doctor visits, that pesky newly changed life insurance policy with his name in big red letters, the phone records, an old lady’s witness sketch, which looks uncannily like him, and those 485,000 missing dollars. Half of the fun of the film is watching Whitlock squirm and strategize out of these sticky jams, which really could have been avoided with one simple admission of consensual adultery. With a movie like “Out of Time”, directed by Carl Franklin, the setup is so ingenious that it corners itself and has to find a plausible way to get free and end. Unfortunately, endings of thrillers often are a letdown, and the best I can say for the contrivances and clichés that arise near the conclusion here is that most of the loose ends are dealt with in an efficient manner, it’s only that a final shootout and tacked on epilogue leave a lingering bad aftertaste. But that’s not much of a problem because for the most part “Out of Time” is a crafty and entertaining mystery, with a hair-raising sequence on a balcony façade (where we see our hero dangling for his life) that’s reminiscent of the prison escape scene in last year’s “Once Upon a Time in Mexico”, which is equally as junky and entertaining. The story, written by first timer David Collard (whose only other professional credit is for writing on the increasingly cult animated ‘Simpsons rip-off “Family Guy”) wouldn’t be as exciting if we didn’t already know Matt was innocent, for if he really had killed the couple for the insurance money than whom would we have to root for but a greedy villain? Granted, Denzel won his second Oscar for his villainous cop in “Training Day”, and it was an wicked change of pace (for an actor usually paired with schmaltzy pseudo-heroic scripts), but ultimately, that suave venire and personality of his is best used as the good guy. Like Dr. Richard Kimball in “The Fugitive”, or Washington’s own role as wrongfully imprisoned boxer Reuben Carter in Norman Jewison’s “The Hurricane”, or, most importantly, any number of Hitchcock’s wrong-man films, notably Cary Grant in “North by Northwest” and Robert Donat in “The 39 Steps” Captain Matt Lee Whitlock is, after all, just a guy having a bad day, through little fault of his own. It may have clichés and it may be crass popcorn thriller-filler, but Franklin and Washington, like Ben and George, are honest craftsmen, and their roller coaster ride is harmless Hollywood neo-noirism. “Out of Time” has been released on DVD by MGM as a special edition featuring a wide-screen transfer, deleted scenes and a director’s commentary.
|