What if God played poker?

Except, of course, He's a bit of a grandstander, and so chooses days of the week instead of playing cards.

And so he takes Sandra Bullock's [Images] life, and shuffles it Vegas-style. Suddenly it's all random. Thursday comes before Tuesday, Saturday before Wednesday, et al.

Bullock, playing the annoyingly suburban Linda, wakes up to hear that her husband Jim (Julian McMahon, last seen Dr Dooming his way through Fantastic Four) has died in a car crash. All is tragic, as funerals are planned and daughters are sobbingly consoled.

The next day, Linda wakes up to hear motorsport playing on the kitchen TV. Puzzled, she enters the room to find Jim, watching the race with a mug of coffee. It's a startling, chilling sight.

And that's pretty much it for the movie.

That one shiver is as good as it gets, as Bullock cluelessly tries to unravel a loophole-filled tale of timewarps and calendars with a life of their own. One day Jim's alive, the next he's dead -- and she's trying to piece it all together; to prevent it, maybe.

Unfortunately, while many a film has experimented with the awakening to deja-vu format, nothing's come close to the brilliant Groundhog Day. Unlike the mentioned Harold Ramis film, however, this one does a Shyamalan and tries to rationalise the impossible -- by bringing in a verbose priest, no less.

Yeah, it's that kind of movie. One where you wonder why the protagonists are so uninspired and lackluster, why they aren't doing obvious, interesting things to speed the plot along.

The acting is flat -- while Bullock manages a couple of good scenes, you long to fling her onto a booby-trapped bus --and director Mennan Yapo shows off an obvious Michael Mann hangover as he constantly overdoes the extreme close-ups.

It's not scary, it's not smart, it's not a thriller, and there isn't anyone to care about. A premonition like this is best left forgotten.

Rediff Rating: