Deja Vu

Normally, you wouldn’t use words such as 'intelligent’ and ‘thought-provoking’ in the same sentence as Jerry Bruckheimer. The producer extraordinaire is usually known for loud and somewhat shallow action flicks (Bad Boys, Con Air, or Armageddon ring any bells?) as opposed to contemplative thrillers. While Déjà Vu isn’t an intellectual think-piece, it gets points for attempting more than just wall-to-wall bangs. This is especially true during the first hour where it functions as an effective police procedural with an eerie feel to it.

After terrorists blow up 500-odd people on Fat Tuesday, ATF agent Doug Carlin (Denzel Washington) is sent in to clean things up. Making a connection between the bombing and the murder of a young woman (Paula Patton), Carlin is noticed by FBI agent Pryzwarra (Val Kilmer) who recruits him to their team. However, when he discovers that the FBI may have equipment capable of time travel, Carlin has the chance to go back and save the day…

Unlike the usual Bruckheimer explosion-by-numbers, here you have to pay attention right from the word go in order to fully ‘get’ Déjà Vu and the many incidental occurrences within it. For those viewers who drift in and out of movies, viewing the opening set-up etc as superfluous, the rewind and scene selector functions on your DVD player could be the order of the day.

Unfortunately, the second half is more ‘Bruckheimery’ and slips into conventional territory. Those expecting the action thick and fast will have to wait for the latter stages where the volume is turned up a notch (you may need to turn yours down) in contrast to the futuristic CSI-meets-detective yarn first hour. Given that it’s directed by Tony Scott, whose work is mercurial, this maybe shouldn’t come as a massive surprise.

What about the whole travelling through time thing? Well it might offer an off-beat slant for this sort of picture, but it also smacks of other genre movies. The use of future technology to stop crimes taking place is pure Minority Report, the ‘changing things has consequences’ angle reeks of Back To The Future and the explanations offered for time travel are very similar to those in Event Horizon. Wrap all this up in the style of Enemy Of The State and you have a pretty good idea what to expect from Déjà Vu.

Scott’s regular muse, Washington (Crimson Tide and Man On Fire), might walk through proceedings giving us the good-guy version of his occasionally-shouty self, but this isn’t one of his ‘big’ performances (we all know he only attracts Oscar attention for playing bad guys). Elsewhere, Kilmer is a bit meek, James Caviezel is a cardboard baddie and Patton is, well, hot. As for Adam Goldberg (Chandler’s crazy roommate from Friends), would anyone else like to see him used more?

Definitely a step up the ladder for Bruckheimer and one of Tony Scott’s better thought-out pictures. The problem with Déjà Vu is that, despite a few glimpses that feign otherwise, it’s the sort of movie you’ve seen somewhere before.