Critic's Grade: B

If your interest level begins to wane within the first thirty minutes of "Out of Time," then take heed of this warning: stick with it! To give up on this preposterous yet absolutely riveting thriller would be like getting tackled on the one-yard line; if ever there was a more clear-cut example of a film that has the power to redeem itself, this is it. Denzel Washington stars as Matt Lee Whitlock, police chief of Banyan Key, Florida who, as it happens, has more going on in his life than most soap opera characters. He's recently filed for divorce from his detective wife, Alex (Eva Mendes), while carrying on an affair with Ann (Sanaa Lathan), whose security guard husband Chris (Dean Cain) beats her. When it is discovered that Ann has terminal cancer, Matt jumps at any possible chance of saving her life, going so far as to devise a plan of making off to Switzerland for an operation using drug money serving as evidence in a recent search and seizure. But things go terribly wrong the night of their departure, and when Chris and Ann wind up dead in a house fire, all signs point to Matt as the perpetrator.

Once the clues start piling up, that's when things really start to look up for this well-crafted genre piece, which adheres strictly to the thriller code of moviemaking, but does so with respect for the laws of entertainment without logic or reason. It's the type of movie where you have one of two choices: you can either sit back and question certain actions taken by the characters (do they not perform autopsies on fire victims anymore for identification purposes?), or you can just accept that there's not a hint of real-world intelligence within the confines of this film-smart screenplay, and go along for the ride. Director Carl Franklin makes it a pretty smooth ride at that (at least for the audience, anyway), aided by the acting skills of Washington, who continues to prove that his Oscar for "Training Day" was well-deserved. Things may get off to a rocky start, but by the finish, it's clear, sunny skies and smooth sailing for "Out of Time."

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