Reviewed by Neil Davey
Stars Denzel Washington, Paula Patton, Val Kilmer,
James Caviezel, Adam Goldberg, Bruce Greenwood
Written by Bill Marsilii and Terry Rossio
Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer
Certification US PG-13 | UK 12A | Australia M
Runtime 128 minutes
Directed by Tony Scott
Time travel, a little romance, lots of explosions, and a CSI-style murder investigation; Déjà Vu ticks a lot of crowd-pleasing boxes and can't have been hard to pitch. Fortunately, it's also greater than the sum of its parts, a satisfyingly twisty, clever thriller that milks its scenario for all it's worth and asks some interesting moral questions. The big question, of course, is if you can change the past, should you? And what consequences would it bring? The subject of that question is usually Hitler. If you could go back in time and kill him, would you? You'd save millions, obviously, but what would the world be like if the Second World War had never happened?
That's a debate for another time though. For ATF agent Doug Carlin (Denzel Washington), the question is if you could prevent an act of terrorism, save 500+ people and, possibly, get a new girlfriend out of the deal, would you? And should you? Carlin is called in to investigate an explosion on a New Orleans ferry. As part of that, he becomes involved with a special FBI project, an all-seeing surveillance system that can see four-and-a-bit days into the past. Using his smarts and their technology, they soon identify the killer.
But the technology isn't just a chance to observe, it also messes around with the space / time continuum to the extent that they could, perhaps, prevent the incident they're investigating - and save Claire (Paula Patton), the girl whose violent murder serves as the key to catching the bomber. Big themes then - from the morality of investigations and surveillance to controlling the past in order, possibly, to control the future - and all are handled thoroughly and oddly believably under Tony Scott's assured direction. Of course, Scott being Scott, there's lots of bleeding cutting-edge technology and the action scenes are from the kick-ass school of filmmaking.
After the 'delights' of A Good Year, maybe he could teach brother Ridley a thing or two about entertainment? Washington is on fine form - hardly a shock, but worth a mention - and the whole package is a slick bit of eye candy with some surprising depth. It almost makes sci-fi hip.