Out of Time

Directed by Carl Franklin, Out of Time follows Florida police officer Matt Whitlock (Denzel Washington) as he unwittingly finds himself at the center of an arson case involving his married mistress (Sanaa Lathan’s Anne). It’s a well-worn setup that’s employed to familiar yet mostly compelling effect by Franklin, as the filmmaker, armed with David Collard’s screenplay, delivers a briskly-paced thriller that benefits from its moody, atmospheric visuals and uniformly compelling performances – with, in terms of the latter, Washington’s typically magnetic and electrifying work matched by a supporting cast that includes Eva Mendes and Dean Cain. There’s little doubt, as well, that Out of Time is at its best in its frequently spellbinding midsection, as the movie boasts a handful of tense, edge-of-your-seat sequences, including a terrific interlude wherein Matt must block a pivotal fax from being received, that go a long way towards masking the narrative’s somewhat predictable bent (ie many of the film’s big twists are hardly as surprising or shocking as Franklin has surely intended, ultimately). The satisfying (if a little too upbeat) finale ensures that the whole thing concludes on a satisfying note, which does, in the end, confirm Out of Time‘s place as a perpetually watchable film-noir riff that is, for the most part, as entertaining as one might’ve hoped.

*** out of ****