Hey folks, Harry here with Capone... Who seems to be saying that OUT OF TIME is apparently on par with DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS, which I love in great big gobs of passion. So, count me there. Here ya go...
Hey, Harry. Capone in Chicago here with one simple question: Why am I not hearing more advanced word on the new Carl Franklin-directed, Denzel Washington-starring OUT OF TIME? I walked into a screening of it last night convinced beyond all doubt that it would suck beyond all sucking. The trailer and commercials for it are terrible and make the film seem like some third-rate Hitchcock innocent-man-accused story. In fact, nobody in the film even realizes Denzel’s Police Chief Matt Lee Whitlock is “affiliated” with the victims of a double murder until nearly the end of the film. With many of his contemporaries falling by the wayside (John Dahl in particular), director Franklin has almost single-handedly kept the new noir genre alive and kicking with amazing films like ONE FALSE MOVE and his last pairing with Washington, DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS, the film which blessedly introduced Don Cheadle to the mainstream.
In OUT OF TIME, Washington’s Whitlock works in a small community in Florida. His staff of four officers is able to keep the peace without too much trouble. The film opens with a very funny and down-right sexy “distress” call to Whitlock from Anne Merai Harrison (BROWN SUGAR’s Sanaa Lathan, who gets better looking every time I see her). As things progress, we learn that Whitlock is a local superstar thank to his work in cracking a major drug ring. He has nearly $500,000 sitting in his office safe waiting for the DEA to come collect. Hmm, I wonder if that will come into play. We also find out that he’s in the early stages of getting a divorce from his wife, Alex (the staggeringly gorgeous Eva Mendes, most recently seen in ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO), a detective who doesn’t seem entirely sure she likes the idea of divorce. To add to the intrigue, it turns out Anne is married to a brute of a man named Chris (Dean Cain, in a surprisingly effective menace role). The cool thing about OUT OF TIME is that even if you sort of know where the story is going, it’s amazing fun getting there.
Anne and Matt don’t seem to always care if people see them together at times, so it’s not that unusual for them to run errands together. In one very uncomfortable scene, she takes him to her doctor who informs her that a long-defeated cancer has returned at that she only has six months to live. Washington’s face during this scene is incredible. He clearly feels terrible for Anne’s situation, but he’s also thinking “I didn’t sign on for this. I’m not her husband. I’m just here for some bootylicious on-the-side sex.” Not long after Anne’s diagnosis, she finds out that her husband has upped her $100,000 life insurance policy to $1 million. It’s right about here that my wheels started turning. Anytime an altered life insurance policy enters the picture, my DOUBLE INDEMNITY radar goes off. Thinking that her husband means to off her, Chris makes Matt the beneficiary of her policy. So it’s easy to understand that Matt might get a little nervous when the Harrison’s house burns down killing everyone inside.
Watching Whitlock try to outmaneuver his own staff and his wife, who is put in charge of the case is magnificent and loads of fun. OUT OF TIME reminded me a lot of NO WAY OUT, with the lead character being a part of the investigation, while also deliberately sabotaging it and trying to stay one step ahead of the investigators while he conducts his own clandestine search for the real killer. I guarantee an edge-of-your-seat experience with some nicely written characters. And as much as I could sort of see what was coming next, Franklin and Co. always had me wondering how the hell Whitlock was not going get caught. (By the way, I’m not saying he doesn’t.) OUT OF TIME is B-movie fun wrapped in an A-level production, and I dug every second of it. A lot of Washington’s performance centers on his non-reaction reaction to devastating news and potential incriminating evidence against him that he has to cover up. It’s a remarkable achievement in a type of film you may not expect to find such nuanced work. Mendes also gets a chance to really shine as a heartbroken woman who still obviously cares for her husband but is the one who ultimately files the divorce papers first. It’s nice to see that she’s more than just a posing pretty face, but thankfully she’s that as well. She wears a skirt in most of this film that is so tight...well, it’s very tight. But most of the credit for OUT OF TIME being so exceptional belongs to Franklin, who has again produced a perfectly paced, well acted, marvelous to behold work of art that harkens back to the great crime dramas of the 1940s and ‘50s. If he’d filmed this in black and white, I might have peed myself. Don’t let this one get lost in shuffle folks. You'll need to do something with your money before the Coens, Tarantino, Eastwood, and HOUSE OF THE DEAD bust down your door next week. OUT OF TIME makes a nice appetizer.
Capone
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