OUT OF TIME
US, 2003, 104 minutes, Colour.
Denzel Washington, Eva Mendes, John Billingsley.
Directed by Carl C. Franklin.
Carl Franklin directed Denzel Washington in the crime and detection thriller Devil in a Blue Dress. They team again for this variation on the Double Indemnity insurance scheme with a good man duped by a femme fatale. This time the setting is a sunny Florida, where the police chief wears T-shirts and shorts, goes fishing and the living seems to be easy in summertime (and all the year round). However, there is always a devil lurking in paradise.
Denzel Washington plays the police chief of a small town. He has a reputation for securing a substantial drug bust. However, he has been disappointed in his separation from his detective wife (Eva Mendes) and has begun an affair with a colleague's wife. He is a sympathetic man and wants to help the young woman battle a terminal cancer and gives her the cash from the drug case and she makes him the beneficiary of the insurance policy for her death. He is a trusting type, but we have seen Body Heat and all kinds of film noir and so we settle back to see how the chief handles being framed when his wife investigates the murder of the woman and her husband. Sometimes, time is tight as the Chief has to sabotage the investigation and cover himself. He is ably helped by his medical examiner, played with ironic ease by Jonathan Billingsley.
Of course, it is nothing new. It is the pleasure of seeing Denzel Washington as less than hero but nevertheless using his ingenuity to save himself.
1. An interesting police drama? Detection? Confidence scheme?
2. The Florida settings, the sun, the water, easygoing? The police station, homes, hotels, highways - authentic atmosphere? The musical score?
3. The title and its focus? Theme, characters?
4. Issues of lies and deceit, motivation of sexuality, money and greed? Dupes and victims? The confidence tricksters and their ability to act, control?
5. Denzel Washington as Matt Whitlock? His screen presence and style? His being a victim, of himself, of others, of compassion? On duty, the casual clothes, the phone call, the sexual encounter with Anne? The background of his divorce, Alex and her visit, the tension between them? His concealing the affair? The encounters with Anne and Chris, the antagonism towards Chris, the insults in the restaurant, at the bar, the visit? Despising him? His friendship with Jake? The ordinary day at the office, casual enquiries in Florida? His success with the drug bust and his featuring in the papers? The various meetings with Anne, the conducting of the affair? Visiting her at home, going out the back way as Chris arrived? Her taking him to the doctor as her brother and the information about her cancer? His attempts to help her sell the insurance policy? His taking the drug money for her? His becoming the beneficiary? His being trapped?
6. The background of the drug bust, his supervision of the cash, the DEA officers and their phone calls, wanting the money, his taking it, the various mix-ups about delivery and collection? The final irony with Jake delivering the money?
7. Anne and Chris, their marriage, coming back to the town? Her affair with Matt? Their past friendship? The threats by Chris at the bar, their talking in the third person - about themselves? Anne and the news of her cancer, the insurance, the doctor and his sympathy, the plans? Matt as beneficiary? The fire at the house and the bodies? Matt and seeing her again, the phone call, her being bashed, his sympathy? The final confrontation, her shooting Chris, her evil and her willingness to kill Matt? The irony of her being killed by Alex?
8. Chris, his weakness, tough with Anne and with Matt? His part in the plan, with Paul Cabot, working at the morgue? The final confrontation with the gun, Anne shooting him?
9. Paul Cabot posing as the doctor, Matt and Jake visiting his house, going to the hotel, his being ready for Matt, the fight, the hanging from the rail and the balcony, his death? His having the money and Matt recovering it as the gun went under the bed?
10. Jake, friendship, sardonic remarks? Drinking, the ambition of buying the boat with Matt? His intervening with Alex and the investigation of Matt's phone number, his quick thinking? His sardonic advice about taking the money? At the crossroads to the airport or to the town? Driving the money, the irony of the breakdown, delivering cash? The ending?
11. Alex, the background to the divorce, her anger with Matt, rivalry in jobs, her skill as a detective, seeing her in action, Matt impeding her with the facts, the information about Cabot, the phone number? Her coming to the hotel, her wariness about Matt? Suspicions? Her getting the final information about the beneficiary?
12. Matt, the shock of his being framed? His being seen at Anne's home - and the humour about the sketch and the witness fingering all of the black policemen in the office? The fire, the bodies? His participation in the investigation, with Alex? Trying to cover himself, Jake and the deception about the phone number, his taking false phone calls, sabotaging the facts, changing the information on the computer? The issue of the cash and the phone calls? The information about Cabot, the fingerprints, going with Jake to the home, to the hotel, the fight and his being seen and identified, the possibility of his death?
13. The final call, his confronting Anne and Chris, the possibility of his death, the irony of his using the technology to indicate where the cars were, both for Jake, in the case, for Alex to find him?
14. A sunny Florida ending, Alex moving back in, Jake and his comments? An interesting drama about duplicity, manipulation, greed?
