Jean-Luc Godard famously once said “Every movie needs to have a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order.” This made me think of the layout of a normal week starting from Monday and ending with Sunday. There are not a lot of movies that run all the way through without showing either a flash back or the future. ‘Premonition’ is a perfect example of this quote. The movie starts at the end of the story when protagonist Linda finds out her husband has died in a car accident the previous day. Linda awakes the following morning finding her husband alive at home. She realises that she is living her days in the wrong order. Everyone else is carrying on like normal and believe Linda is insane.
So the movie ‘Premonition’ does have a beginning, middle and end but the story is told as
end - middle - beginning
Instead of living the week as Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday Lisa week is Thursday, Monday, Saturday, Tuesday, Friday, Sunday and Wednesday.
All movies are told in 3 acts.
Act 1, the beginning, characters are introduced and are equal. This act does not end until the protagonist (main character) makes a commitment which lead to the main action of the movie, acts 2 and 3.
Thursday - Linda finds out her husband died the previous day.
Monday - Linda finds her husband Jim alive. She meets the Sheriff that told her that her husband died and strangly the Sheriff does not recognise her. Has never met her before.
Saturday - Linda finds some pills in the sink and a bottle with a doctors name on it. She finds that one of her daughters have got scars all over her face. She has no idea how her daughter has got these scars. Today is her husbands funeral. She notices a strange woman. Her name is Claire and says they talked the day previous. Once home she looks for the doctors number. She can’t call during weekends. The doctor arrives with assistance and they think Linda is mental as she can not remember how her daughter got the cuts. They take Linda to a mental health care facility. The doctor recalls Linda's visit from Tuesday, when she claimed her husband was already dead.
Act 2, the middle, the characters begin equal and something happens to disturb this. This starts a sequence of events.
Tuesday - Linda wakes up at home instead of mental health care facility and finds her husband. Her daughter is wound free. Linda then visits the doctors. He doesn’t recognise her. She tells the doctor about her husband Jim dying. She gets prescribed drugs and goes home. Next Linda goes to her husband work place and suggests that the family need to get away for a break. This is a bid to save her husband. She sees Claire, the girl at funeral. When she gets home she puts the pills down sink. Then her daughter runs through a glass door and get her wounds. Finally on this day she makes a note of what days she has lived so far and what days are to come. She tries again to convince jim to stay and not go on his business trip Wednesday.
Friday - Linda wakes up realises its friday and remembers this is the day that her and Claire speak. She visits Claire and ask’s her about Jim finding out that him and Clair where about to have an affair.
Act 3, the end, the protagonist changes or grows emotionally. All events come to a close.
Sunday - Linda reflects on what has happened and what may happen and is wondering what to do. She eventually tells Jim that she had a dream that he died. Another attempt to make him stay and save him, however he only replied with “It was just a dream”. There is only one day left, Wednesday. Jim could die tomorrow.
Wednesday - Linda wakes up and doesn’t want to believe its Wednesday. She rings a friend to conform. She finds a note from Jim and he has already left. She runs after him and rings and ask him to pull over. She is by the scene of the accident and ask him to turn around panicking. He does and narrowly misses another car. He stops but cant start the car again while there is a trunk approaching. Linda screams and watches the accident happen. Linda’s husband dies.
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