by MARK SLUTSKY

It's a shame about the boring title, because the Denzel Washington-starring Out of Time is actually an enjoyably tight little thriller, as these things go. Directed by Carl Franklin (Devil in a Blue Dress, One False Move), the movie doesn't entirely hold together, and it's hurt by a lame ending. But it's way better than Franklin's last movie, High Crimes, where all of his fun directorial tricks and zooms couldn't prop up a lousy script. Here the material is somewhat better, and for the most part, it draws you in.

Washington plays the chief of police in a small Florida town. Estranged from his wife (Eva Mendes), a homicide detective, Washington is carrying on an affair with a local married woman (Sanaa Lathan), when they discover that Lathan's got an incurable form of cancer, with only months to live. Desperate, and somewhat resigned, Washington sneaks Lathan some seized drug money so she can go to Switzerland and try some experimental therapy. That night, Lathan's house burns to the ground and two bodies are found; murder is suspected, Mendes moves on to the case, and Washington's potentially in a whole lot of trouble.

The bulk of Out of Time takes place over the next day, as the steely-nerved Washington wiggles and worms his way one step ahead of the investigators and a whole lot of other complications. This is really the good stuff, as he's always right on the verge of being discovered. The suspense is pretty tight, and Washington's character is a nice twist on the wrong-man-accused device, as he is actually kinda guilty, though not of everything he could get pinned for. It's a mostly deadpan role, and not very flashy, but Washington pulls it off, with a performance that's sympathetic enough while still maintaining a level of ambiguity about his motives. Sadly, though, the movie goes out with a whimper, with a climax suited to a much worse kind of thriller - after all that high tension the finale is depressingly rote. Still, Franklin can direct the heck out of that suspense stuff, and there's a lot of good movie in Out of Time.

Out of Time opens Friday, Oct. 3

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