Sandra Bullock is the cure for the common cold

Darker films go down just as easily
I’ve also taken a strange liking to the recent dour phase Bullock’s offerings have entered. Because I’ve already seen the thoroughly surprising and morbidly entertaining “Premonition” (no spoilers here, of course), I can tell you that it’s the perfect supernatural companion to last year’s yearning mope-fest “The Lake House,” and, in a way, to Bullock’s excellently brittle-bitchy performance in the ridiculously overwrought “Crash.”

All the lightly sarcastic and somewhat dark brunette energy she brings to the sugary comedies, the reason she’s always been more accessible than someone like Meg Ryan, or even Julia Roberts — her ability to seem like she might start crying at any moment — gets to flower and fester unchecked in the recent films. They’re the opposite of cute, but they’re still kind of great for wallowing. The comfort they deliver is based in a sort of crummy empathy.

It just so happens that I’ve been hovering near the edge of being coughy and sneezy lately. It could just be an allergy-based touch of sinus grossness brought on by the sudden spring weather my part of the country has been experiencing. Or I might just need to shut the curtains and lie in the dark for no good reason. Whatever it is, it’s enough to make me feel like I’m due for some couch time, some crummy empathy, and a dose of “Murder By Numbers.”

Dave White is the film critic for Movies.com and the author of “Exile in Guyville.” Find him at www.imdavewhite.com.

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