Warning - spoilers ahead for Premonition
Premonition is a weakly plotted movie that relies heavily on gimmicks and distractions to confuse the audience. If it weren't such a depressing movie, I would be tempted to call it "silly".
Despite that, you may have arrived at this lens looking for some explanations. Specifically, the biggest plot question discussed in Premonition is how the daughter's injuries fit into the plot.
Nowhere in my surfing have I found any discussions that relate to the most obvious plot thread of the movie, so read on if you're feeling confused.
Image: Premonition DVD cover
Premonition cast
Jim (Linda's husband) - Julian McMahon
Bridgette (Linda and Jim's eldest daughter; the girl whose face is cut) - Courtney Taylor Burness
Megan (Linda and Jim's younger daughter) - Shyann McClure
Claire (Jim's colleague) - Amber Valletta
Annie (Linda's friend) - Nia Long
The most critical scenes for plot clarity
Thursday
The single most important scene in the movie in terms of audience understanding of how the movie's concept will play out is the early scene on Thursday where Linda does the laundry.The director draws the audience attention to this with the brightly coloured jumper that Linda picks up and says "this doesn't need to be washed".
Linda then does the laundry and sticks the stickers on the sliding glass door. (Remember this is Thursday.)
Linda hears Jim's message on the answering machine and then receives the bad news that Jim was killed in a car accident.
Image: Premonition DVD cover
Monday
But note that the laundry basket is exactly the same on Monday as it was on Thursday, including the little coloured jumper. Linda now does the laundry on Monday - and this suggests that she would not normally have left the laundry until Thursday.
In other words, Linda wasn't "present" in some way from Sunday to Thursday morning.
Some other points reinforce this:
- On Thursday, Linda tells her friend Annie that she can't figure out where the rest of the week went.
- Bridgette is annoyed with her mother on Thursday morning because if they are late for school a third time they will get detention. Presumably, Jim takes the girls to school on Wednesday - therefore the girls were late on both Monday and Tuesday: because Linda wasn't "present".
The dead crow
The important incident that occurs on Monday is when Linda trips over the toy while hanging the laundry and puts her hand straight into the dead crow (from Sunday's lightning strike).
This distracts Linda from the rest of her intentions, which we know were to place the stickers on the glass sliding door.
It is also possible (although not shown) that Linda cleaned the glass doors on this day, to get rid of the bloody handprint on the glass (from the crow's blood on her hand).
The gashes on Bridgette's face
Saturday and Tuesday
Because she did the washing on Monday instead of Thursday, she threw the future out.
On Saturday, Bridgette has terrible gashes on her face and Linda cannot get the girls to explain how the injuries occurred.
Waking up on Tuesday morning, Linda discovers that Bridgette's face is fine.
Another important "rule" of the movie's universe is conveyed in Tuesday's scenes, foreshadowing the end of the movie: Linda attempts to prevent the future situations she has seen, but it is actually her attempts at prevention that cause the events. That the protagonist of the story doesn't learn this "rule" is the biggest downfall of this movie.
Not shown, but implied, is that Linda left the laundry hanging out over Monday night. On Tuesday afternoon it begins raining. Linda calls the girls inside and then remembers the laundry.
Bridgette runs towards the (closed) glass sliding door to help bring the laundry in. At that moment Linda realises what is about happen and yells out, distracting Bridgette, who runs into the door.
- Would Bridgette have noticed that the door was closed if her mother hadn't distracted her?
- Had Linda not been distracted and disturbed by the dead crow on Monday, would she have remembered to place the stickers on the glass door?
- Had Linda left the laundry until Thursday, it's unlikely the accident would've occurred at all (it occurred on Tuesday due to the rain, there was no rain on Thursday or Friday (and Bridgette would likely have been too sad to run for the laundry)).
Why is Linda committed by Doctor Roth?
Saturday and Tuesday
This leads to the events of Saturday (occuring for Linda before Tuesday), when Linda first discovers that Bridgette has been injured.
On Tuesday Linda told both girls to try to behave as if Bridgette's scars weren't there, in order to help Bridgette get over the accident quickly and with less trauma.
Unfortunately, this means that neither Linda nor the girls are able to explain to anyone how Bridgette's face was cut. The girls apparently follow Linda's advice innocently and simply correct anyone who asks about the scars. Linda, on the other hand, has no idea yet how the injuries occured.
It would seem that Saturday is the first day that Linda's mother plucks up the courage to ask Linda about the injuries. It would not be a helpful thing to ask about when someone has just learnt about their husband's death.
The real question here is not why Linda's mother calls Doctor Roth and has her committed, but why on earth would Linda go and see Doctor Roth on Tuesday knowing that he will consider her insane by Saturday and have her removed from her children and committed? Here is another serious flaw in the movie. Linda knows Roth has no answers for her. Why not, then, pick a different psychologist?
Premonition
Premonition (Widescreen Edition)
Amazon Price: $14.99 (as of 07/26/2008)
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