Out of Time Review
by Harvey S. Karten (harveycritic AT cs DOT com)September 25th, 2003
OUT OF TIME
Reviewed by: Harvey S. Karten
Grade: B
MGM
Directed by: Carl Franklin
Written by: David Collard
Cast: Denzel Washington, Sanaa Lathan, Dean Cain, Eva Mendes, Alex Carter
Screened at: MGM, NYC, 9/24/03
In the major Shakespearean dramas, attention center on the tragic hero: a noble man with good intentions whose fatal flaw leads to his downfall. King Lear never should have given his land to his two mean daughters. Macbeth should not have listened to his wife, nor should Iago have held the ear of Othello. While "Out of Time" is hardly Shakespearen despite some crackling good dialogue from scripter Dave Collard (who's anything but green in the writing department), its hero is a decent man who with the best of intentions steals big bucks, putting his integrity, freedom and his very life in danger. With a sparkling performance by Denzel Washington in the role of a guy not quite as conniving as he was in "Training Day," director Carl Franklin affords us a film that lets us root for the hero despite his tragic flaw. The poor guy is trapped by a thread which wraps him around a woman's finger, a kind of lust that brought down Greek and Elizabethan heroes such as Agamemnon, Jason, and Romeo.
To a background of Graeme Revell's noirish Latin-jazz music and photographed by Theo Van de Sande in quaint Florida gulf towns like Boca Grande and Cortez, "Out of Time" takes us to the office of Matt Whitlock (Denzel Washington), chief of police of Banyan Key, population 1384 a number that you'd be right to assume will shrink during the 105 minutes of the story. The film bring up memories of Lawrence Kasdan's "Body Heat," about a Florida lawyer who is worked over by a married socialite desiring him to eliminate her husband.
Whitlock is about to be served with divorce papers by his estranged wife Alex (Eva Mendes), who works as a homicide detective in the same town, thereby coming frequently into contact with him. Since Florida's temperature-humidity index does not encourage abstinence, Whitlock involves himself in a sizzling affair with the foxy Ann Merai (Sanaa Lathan), married to an abusive husband, Chris (Dean Cain), who entertains suspicions of the extra-curricular relationship. When Ann Merai's physician informs her that her cancer is no longer in remission and the only chance for a cure lies with an expensive experimental procedure in Switzerland, Whitlock already evoking some frowns from the movie audience for adultery ups the ante and steals a large sum of money entrusted to him as evidence in order to finance her chance for a cure. An explosion and fire at Ann's house escalates Whitlock's troubles, forcing him to take evasive actions to avoid accusations of both theft and murder.
If you've guessed that Whitlock, in the tradition of noir melodramas, is being set up, you could be right, particularly if you believe the man when he says "I've been set up!" David Collard's dialogue is so crisp, both witty and cutting, that when director Carl Franklin moves into the obligatory physical violence, we count the minutes for the repartee to resume, particularly when Whitlock and a suspect named Cabot (Alex Carter) are locked in the sort of combat you've seen before, each hoping to throw the other over the balcony to his death. Director Franklin slowly closes the noose around Whitlock, as a DEA agent, his estranged wife, and others close to him become increasingly suspicious of his activities.
Best of all is the comic role assigned to John Billingsley as Chae, a medical examiner and best friend of Whitlock, who repeatedly tries to influence him to join in an investment in a boat business in Costa Rica and who is on hand with a flurry of bon mots to save Whitlock's butt from an indictment and trial and nearby Miami. Though we've seen countless movies before revolving around the double-crosses so much a convention of detective stories, Denzel Washington manages to pull off a convincing role as a man whose criminal deeds come mighty close to doing him in.
Rated PG-13. 106 minutes.(c) 2003 by Harvey Karten at
Harveycritic@cs.com
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