D‚j… Vu
3 Stars
Directed by: Tony Scott
Starring: Denzel Washington, Val Kilmer
Rated: R
Popular science fiction has been more than eager to explore theories of time travel, from the wildly popular Back to the Future series to the more cultish Primer and even an episode of "The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror." Most of these stories subscribe to one of two mutually exclusive theories: either time is a straight, predestined line with all events past, present and future already established; or time is alterable, a tree that branches every time Doc Brown and Marty push the DeLorean past 88 mph. The problem with D‚j… Vu, the latest from producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Tony Scott (Top Gun, Domino), is that it sticks with the first theory for much of the film, then changes course in the final act.
Denzel Washington plays Doug Carlin, a meticulous federal agent operating out of post-Katrina New Orleans. When a terrorist kills 500 people in a ferry explosion, Carlin joins the FBI in investigating. He uncovers a young woman's (Paula Patton) mutilated body dumped near the explosion site just hours before, and connects her killer to the ferry boat attack. Thankfully, a new government "surveillance" technology (read: time travel) provides a glimpse into the woman's past -- and offers Carlin the chance to save hundreds of lives.
Audiences will themselves have d‚j… vu during the first hour, as the film's pyrotechnics and paranoia were covered just as well in Scott's actioner Enemy of the State. But the second half's dimension-hopping plot invites a level of scrutiny that the film, by the end, cannot bear. D‚j… Vu's acting, Gulf Coast scenery and trippy subject matter merit a recommendation, but only to those willing to overlook the film's distracting contrivances.
