One to Go

Washington, D.C., lawyer Tom Booker faces an ethical quandary in this lackluster paranormal thriller from Pace (Dead Light). Booker is texting while driving on a bridge over the Potomac en route to picking up his seven-year-old daughter, Janie, from his sister-in-law, Rosie Battaglia, when his Lexus crashes into a minivan carrying Rosie, Janie, and two of Janie’s friends. After extricating himself from his wrecked car, Booker notices the minivan teetering as if frozen in time on the edge of the bridge. Then a preppy-looking couple approach and offer him a Faustian bargain. Janie and the others will be spared, the accident erased, only if Booker takes a life for each one that is saved. Reality sets in when one of the spared dies after Booker ignores his two-week deadline. Booker anguishes over his dilemma but decides he has no choice but to save his daughter. His struggles continue until an unlikely angel enters the battle. A superficial resolution of the problem undercuts the moral debate. (Dec.)