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OUT OF TIME by Tom McCurrie
Film Noir is often described in terms of style (i.e., oblique angles, chiaroscuro lighting). But it should also be described in terms of subject matter, especially when it comes to the Fickle Finger of Fate. In Film Noir, one wrong move can set the whole world against you. OUT OF TIME is a delicious example.
(Warning: Spoilers Ahead!)
Written by Dave Collard, OUT OF TIME stars Denzel Washington as a police chief who sleeps with another man's wife (wrong move, even if it is a hottie like Sanaa Lathan). Before you can say DOUBLE INDEMNITY, both hubby and wife are crispy-crittered in a house fire. With all the evidence pointing to yours truly, Denzel must sabotage the investigation from the inside while trying to nab the real culprit. Now this plot is very reminiscent of NO WAY OUT (1987), but OUT OF TIME trumps the earlier film in two ways. First of all, the structure is tighter. NO WAY OUT has too much set-up, not getting to the murder frame till the mid-point. This causes our attention to wander, even with Costner and Young doin' the nasty in a limo. OUT OF TIME gets to it by the First Act Break, keeping us hooked from the get-go.
Better yet, in this age of Instant Information, it's harder to hide from the long arm of the law. Not only does our hero have to slip out of buildings unnoticed, he has to sabotage faxes, cell phones and voicemail to boot. These Y2K obstacles boost the tension even more.
The script excels at frying pan into the fire moments, turning what is traditionally the weakest act, the Second, into one sweet nail-biter. Every time Denzel gets out of one jam, Collard shoves him in another. If it's not the old lady who saw him at the scene of the crime, it's the DEA looking for the drug money Denzel's keeping for trial -- money he already gave to Sanaa for cancer treatment. And if it's not the DEA, it's the suspicious lead detective -- his own ex (Eva Mendes)! Try hiding the truth from a woman who knows you better than yourself.
(Side note here: There's a great moment when the old lady IDs Denzel. We think he's toast until the woman IDs every other black guy in the room as well. In this case, racism saves Denzel instead of hurting him. Wonderfully ironic touch.)
Collard also scores by making Denzel sympathetic. He might be sleeping around, but he's getting divorced anyway. And the woman he's sleeping with has an abusive husband (Dean Cain), so when he comes to her rescue, there's a chivalrous aspect to his behavior. When Denzel gives the money to Sanaa for her treatment, we might think he's stupid, but part of us likes him for being so selfless. Compare this to BODY HEAT (1981), where William Hurt's passion for Kathleen Turner is purely sexual. He even goes so far as to murder her husband out of lust (and some cold hard cash). Now BODY HEAT is a pleasure to watch, but it's a cold, cerebral one. We're fascinated by Hurt's attempts to escape justice, but his slimy character is hard to root for. In OUT OF TIME, you root for Denzel to bust the frame, and emotionally that makes all the difference.
Finally, kudos to the dialogue between Denzel and Cain in the bar. Each guy says exactly what's on his mind without actually doing so. If you want to learn how to make your characters' intentions clear without using obvious, on-the-nose dialogue, this scene offers the perfect lesson.
Now for the bad news. While OUT OF TIME handles the suspense well, the mystery is another matter. It simply tips off too much. When morgue attendant Cain eyes a corpse, it tips off he plans to fake his death (and possibly that of his wife), while the news that the victims died before the fire only deepens our suspicions. When Sanaa thanks the "doctor" for coming in on his day off, it tips off he's a fake using someone else's office. After all, why make a special appointment to tell a patient she's terminal -- since she's not going to die immediately, couldn't the news wait one more day? And if that's true and Sanaa plays along, she must be a baddie, too. Director Carl Franklin doesn't help matters by doing a little tip-off of his own. He cuts to a close-up of the "doctor" touching a pen. Now the only reason to focus on something like this is if it pays off later -- like with fingerprints, for instance. And if that's the case, it means the doctor is a phony, and Sanaa is in on it, yadda, yadda, yadda.
Though we suspect Cain and Sanaa are still alive and behind the frame, the script still makes a mistake by revealing it at the mid-point. We still have doubts and they could have been increased by a judicious use of red herrings. This revelation should have been saved till the Second Act Break.
Collard does have a twist of sorts late in the game. Sanaa tells Denzel her husband forced her to go along with the frame. But it soon turns out she is an all-too-willing participant. This is too minor a twist to have much effect. It's also too predictable. After all, if she was that scared of her hubby, she could have run away or contacted Denzel. The script needs a final twist like NO WAY OUT, where Costner turns out to be the Russian spy Yuri after all. Making goofy sidekick Chae part of the frame would have freshened the stale payback of the final act. The writer should have made the mystery more mysterious, or cut it all together to focus on the suspense. After all, NO WAY OUT didn't need mystery. We all knew Gene Hackman was the killer, but that didn't diminish the film's pull one freakin' second.
One final problem: Denzel giving Sanaa the drug money makes no sense. So what if it's under his control till the appeals are over; once Sanaa spends it on her treatment, how will he pay it back? With his Christmas Club? It's hundreds of thousands of dollars. (Of course, maybe he figured she'd croak. Then he'd get a million bucks from her life insurance policy. But what if she lived?)
Despite its drawbacks, OUT OF TIME delivers its noir thrills with panache. Getting Fingered by Fate was never so much fun.
Responses, comments and general two-cents worth can be E-mailed to gillis662000@yahoo.com.
(Note: For all those who missed my past reviews, I've just archived them on Hollywoodlitsales.com. Just click the link on the main page and it'll take you to the Inner Sanctum. Love them or Hate them at your leisure!)
A graduate of USC's School of Cinema-Television, Tom McCurrie has worked as a development executive and a story analyst. He is currently a screenwriter living in Los Angeles.
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