Deja Vu Release Date: November 22, 2006 Starring: Val Kilmer, Paula Patton, Jim Caviezel, Bruce Greenwood, Adam Goldberg Directed by: Tony Scott, Denzel Washington
If you feels as if you've seen Déjà Vu before, you might be remembering that the last time director Tony Scott and producer Jerry Bruckheimer teamed up they made an all-too familiar surveillance thriller Enemy of the State with all kinds of tricked-out gadgets in 1998. You might also remember how Denzel Washington cracked a similar prison-sex joke to a criminal he was interrogating in this year's Inside Man, or how he played the same haunted detective in Fallen. If you'd hadn't guessed already, the secret to Bruckheimer's success is his knowledge of what his audience has seen and liked before. So while Déjà Vu is appropriately titled, it's also an enjoyable mystery that ranks with the producer's best.
This is the story of Doug Carlin (Washington), an ATF agent investigating the bombing of a New Orleans ferry carrying Navy officer. Carlin realizes that one of the victims was actually murdered before the attack and that if he can solve her murder, he can catch the bomber. Carlin becomes aware of a time manipulator that can show events from four days prior. He uses the technology to try to stop the bombing before it occurs, and the film begins to bounce back and forth between past and present as though they were happening at the same time.
The intriguing result is a murder mystery where the crime is conveniently solved within the first hour of the film and the second hour becomes a chase film in which an action film staple like the car chase is totally reimagined. If Déjà Vu weren't given that extra boost, the film would probably play like a big budget version of one of Bruckheimer's TV police procedurals, as much of Tony Scott's jittery cinematography style of recent films seems to have been discarded with last year's Domino. But Scott has always known how to keep a film moving and Déjà Vu is no different. Although the science fiction element had the potential to drag the story down, it's kept to a minimum and left somewhat buried in techno jargon.
The performances are passable. Washington and Val Kilmer do their buttoned up best. Jim Caviezel, best known as Jesus in The Passion of the Christ, plays a radical religious and patriotic zealot. It's Adam Goldberg who, as a techie, has the film's best line — a reference to Will Ferrell's "More cowbell" sketch on Saturday Night Live. Special attention is due to Paula Patton, whose radiant screen presence was last seen in Idlewild. She makes the most of a thin character, the victim of the pre-bombing murder who ultimately has some sparks with Washington's character.
