Deja Vu Review
by Steve Rhodes (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)November 22nd, 2006
DÉJÀ VU
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2006 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): *** 1/2
Although DÉJÀ VU has a catchy title, the title works more as an effective marketing hook than it does as a description of the story. A wonderfully imaginative blend of elements from MINORITY REPORT, LAKE HOUSE, BACK TO THE FUTURE and BUTTERFLY EFFECT, DÉJÀ VU is pure edge-of-the-seat material. Even if a great sci-fi gadget is at the heart of its story, the movie works best as a mystery and a thriller. You might want to go easy on the liquids while viewing it, since you're not going to want to miss a minute of this fast-paced picture.
Directed just about flawlessly by Tony Scott (MAN ON FIRE), the movie begins with a crime investigation by ATF Agent Doug Carlin (an always great Denzel Washington) into a major domestic terrorist act. Carroll Oerstadt (James Caviezel), we eventually learn, is the mastermind behind the bombing of a ferry full of celebrating sailors and their families during Mardi Gras festivities in New Orleans.
While trying to find the bomber who killed 543 people, Agent Carlin discovers that one of the victims was a woman named Claire Kuchever (Paula Patton), who mysteriously died before the ferry explosion. Figuring that the circumstances of her death were altered so that she appears to have died on the boat, he goes off to discover how she was killed. Solving the case of Claire's death, he believes, will reveal the answers to the larger crime.
This is when the story gets wild and extremely fascinating. Agent Carlin is asked to join a government team led by FBI Agent Pryzwarra, as they use some very cool and very secretive tools to determine what happened and thereby uncover the fact that Oerstadt is the ruthless bomber. In a nice bit of casting that helps encourage the audience to make certain incorrect assumptions about where the whole story is headed, a remarkably reserved Val Kilmer plays Agent Pryzwarra.
Agent Pryzwarra has the world's neatest toy, which the government scientists call "Snow White." His team has a device that lets them look exactly four days and six hours into the past. They can look just about any place they want as time marches on in the past. They can zoom in and out, they can hear what is happening, but what they don't have are any reverse or fast-forward controls. Agent Carlin is asked to use this tool to look in just the right places at just the right times in order to solve the crime by watching the preparation for it. They even have a FLASH GORDON-like helmet that can be taken into the field when necessary to view this real time feed of the past.
This top notch entertainment has plenty of twists along the way, but what is best about all of them is the way they both surprise and make sense within the context of the narrative and the skillful way that they avoid numerous clichés and pitfalls.
DÉJÀ VU runs a fast 2:08. It is rated PG-13 for "intense sequences of violence and terror, disturbing images and some sensuality" and would be acceptable for kids around 11 and up.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Wednesday, November 22, 2006. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.
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Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
