If you can detach yourself both from the overly familiar texture of Déjà Vu’s broad strokes and the filmmakers’ feeling that they’re doing something more original than it actually is – in other words, if you can settle down with the formula – this is actually a decent enough action movie, with a splash of science-fiction decreeing the plot threads.
Denzel Washington plays Louisiana ATF officer Doug Carlin, called to the scene of a horrific ferry bombing in New Orleans that leaves hundreds dead. Carlin, a very smart officer (though one who we see has no personal life), is enlisted to work with a top secret group of government scientists/surveillance experts, who have concocted a way to peer four days backwards in time. This has more crime-solving potential than it sounds like, but no one except Carlin supposes it can be used to prevent crime. This becomes a bigger issue than one might imagine when Carlin and Co. start watching the last days of Claire Kuchever (Paula Patton), whose gruesome murder appears to be the work of the ferry bomber – and Carlin starts falling for her.
Either because the screenplay by Bill Marzili & Terry Rossio never contained it in the first place or because director Tony Scott took it out, there’s no real comment on the fact that Carlin, no slouch in the first place, seems far more galvanized by the fate of one person than by the fate of the ferry passengers and crew. The script is well-crafted in making the time paradox issues work out coherently for the lay observers in the audience, but there’s also a sense of routine in the details. The bomber is a Timothy McVeigh type who on the one hand is evil genius enough to elude capture at first, but whose ultimate goals and philosophies are extremely vague, apparently to avoid offending anybody on right or left. Likewise, while we have nothing against Claire and (except for viewers with a sadistic streak) wish her well, we’re not finding her special in the way that Carlin finds her special, because we’re not allowed to see any idiosyncrasies.
Another problem is that, due to the film’s structure, main characters spend a fair amount of screen time staring at what amount to huge video monitors, watching surveillance footage. This gives Déjà Vu some of the same problems that plague a lot of computer movies – some of the “action” consists of our heroes sitting and observing.
When characters do run and drive, Scott invests the sequences with great energy (and pretty intense vehicular mayhem) and the explosions are fairly spectacular. There’s also some nice wit here, particularly as expressed by Adam Goldberg’s engaging scientist character.
Déjà Vu is entertaining, with more brain teasing than a lot of action films provide. Still, there’s a feeling that we’ve seen most of it before, one way or another.
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