Deja Vu
Shot in post-Katrina New Orleans, Deja Vu is a thriller with a twist dealing with an incident of domestic terrorism. It’s also, we find out, somewhat of a science-fiction paean to some of the more recent chaos theory and time-space continuum cosmology work being done in university settings. Don’t worry, it’s dumbed down for everyone. Denzel Washington is the smartest guy in the room as an ATF agent investigating the central crime of the movie. Shot with Jerry Bruckheimer money, the two levels of devastation, both immediate and generally post-hurricane, make for emotionally powerful bedfellows. A second crime leads Washington to investigate the terrorism via, shall we say, unorthodox means (see paean comment above), and a new layer of emotional involvement comes into play. When I first drafted this review, I had not chewed on the complexities of storytelling that were required to make this film flow in a logical sense; I was distracted by a ginormous plot hole that a little time has let me forgive in appreciation of the other good work done on the story.
I have to address the key plot point that makes Deja Vu what it is; I don’t want to spoil it, bt you can kind of see it coming a little while before it lumbers into the story. The requisite “dumb it down for the masses” scene is a painful digression from the otherwise smart and efficient dialogue. I guess sure, not everyone has heard of chaos theory and the butterfly effect (not the movie), but having crack smartypants Denzel Washington spoonfeeding himself slowly is just insulting. To Adam Goldberg’s credit, he has the grace for his character to be openly exasperated by Washington’s sudden and mysterious absence of brains in this scene.
So, we’re introduced to a rather common dramatic conceit, which is (I’ll just say it) a sort of time-space flux which allows us to know things that happened in the past. Fine. Plenty of movies, when obeying their own internal logic, encourage us to willingly suspend our disbelief in service to a good story. And we hang our disbelief happily from the ceiling after the aforementioned embarrassing preschool hour. We’re all on board here. Where the movie drove me totally nuts was when they sort of tried to pull a “24″ and stretch that conceit beyond even the most generous boundaries of the original idea. I don’t want to spoil it because frankly, even as I was aggravated by the betrayal of the movie’s internal consistencies, I was even more thrilled and entertained by the sequence. (If you’ve seen it, two words: Goggle rig.) This is a tough place to be. I’m achieving the goal of a viewer of a psychological thriller: I am thrilled and excited by the events that unfold, and gleefully empathetic to the stress of our hero. I admire the camera work and editing that make it make sense. But damn, what a completely goofy way to get there!
But I am straying from the subject. These few moments aside, I found the movie well-written engrossing, beeee-yootifully shot, and tons o’fun. I was pleased at the inclusion of footage of the post-Katrina 9th Ward, which looks like a war zone well over a year later. There’s a lot of love for New Orleans in this movie and it’s great to have the plight of that cultural stronghold portrayed (especially not in a preachy but in a matter-of-fact way). Deja Vu also resists the temptation to use its title anywhere in the dialogue, which I admire.
It’s pretty high concept, owing a debt of gratitude to Minority Report and the Terminator (but totally different, I promise) with a little Cassandra syndrome tucked in for good measure. It has a lot to say about domestic terrorism and patriotism and even the criminal justice system. It’s an exhilarating way to digest your turkey if you can just push past that unforgivable bit. Do try.
MPAA Rating PG-13
Release date 11/22/06
Time in minutes 126
Director Tony Scott
Studio Buena Vista Pictures
