DEJA VU
Denzel's seen this movie too. Denzel's seen
this movie too.
PopcornReel.com Movie Review: "Deja Vu"
By Omar P.L. Moore/November 22, 2006
I'm very sure this must have happened to me
before: A Denzel double take for Paula Patton, in Tony Scott's "Deja Vu", a
fascinating crime mystery-thriller.
(All photos on this page: Robert Zuckerman, copyright Touchstone Pictures and
Jerry Bruckheimer)
Tony Scott and Denzel Washington team up for a third time and hit
the target in the challenging, time-shifting, and highly-fascinating "Deja Vu",
a perplexing, and dynamic crime-solving mystery thriller. The film has a
science-fiction flavor reminiscent of "2001: A Space Odyssey" and it
effortlessly swims into those waters -- and doesn't drown itself.
That's good news -- as is the fact that Scott's typical visually overloaded and
hyper-paced direction is more relaxed here, giving the intriguing story of
an Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent (Washington) who tries to solve a mystery
wrapped up in an enigma -- time to breathe. ATF agent Doug Carlin finds
himself in the harbor in New Orleans (a city in which the film was shot just
five months after Hurricane Katrina ravaged it) in the aftermath of a bombing on
a Naval boat (reminiscent of the USS Cole bombing six years ago). He is
assigned to pick up the pieces and make sense of a curious predicament. As
customary in many films, the "suits" investigating the murders are slow on the
uptake and it takes another character, essentially an outsider, to "school" them
as to what is going on with their own case. Enter Carlin.
But what happens when Carlin himself becomes confused?
Carlin represents the audience and the charismatic and compelling persona of Mr.
Washington keeps us engaged even as we too are both mystified and confused by
what is happening. The Feds in New Orleans have some crime-fighting
technology that can view anyone in their homes at anytime (sound familiar?) and
records everything that is going on in a for an unbroken four-day stretch
The only problem for the crime solvers is that the tape they view cannot be
rewound and everything must be watched in real-time, a 21st century eight-track
player of sorts. The discussion among the feds of their technological
prowess is fascinating even as it is reminiscent of the kinds of things that
societies today have as surveillance of their body politic. There is
gadgetry that recreates the scene of a crime -- in fact, when Carlin straps on
goggles which play back the video of the crime scene he drives down the
identical freeway on which the killer escaped. In a series of breathtaking
scenes, Carlin is steered to the crime scene by the feds from their offices,
replicating the footprints of the killer. Hard to explain how all of the
technical hijinks work, but what Scott puts on the screen in these sequences is
engrossing and it advances the story.
Paula Patton as Claire, and Denzel Washington and Val Kilmer on screen in a film
together for the first time, in "Deja Vu".
As an aside it is possible that Denzel Washington has seen "Deja Vu" before --
perhaps eleven other times. To be precise, the actor has played a police
officer, detective, or federal agent of some sort in 12 films including this
one: "Heart Condition", "Ricochet", "The Mighty Quinn", "Devil In A Blue Dress",
"The Bone Collector", "The Siege", "Fallen", "Training Day", "Out Of Time", "Man
On Fire" and "Inside Man". Mr. Washington is not the only prominent actor
to have played a similar role on numerous occasions, but the difference between
he and others is that the films in which he plays these characters are often
very good, with few exceptions. Each of these roles sees his character in
differing predicaments. Perhaps the only film on the aforementioned list
that is akin to this one is "Fallen" (1998) a supernatural thriller directed by
Gregory Hoblit.
Paula Patton plays Claire Kuchever, and as Claire, Patton has a magnetic and
indelible presence. Beautiful, attractive and very pretty, Claire feels
that she is being watched, yet is not sure. We view Claire mostly in
flashbacks, or at least in real-time video that feels very "now". She has
a profound impression on us and on Carlin and through Denzel's expressions,
which when conveying sorrow, pain or pangs of regret are second-to-none.
(See his performance in "Man On Fire", one of Scott's other Denzel vehicles or
in "Training Day" and you will get a sense of this.) Carlin is in love --
we know it and feel it -- but is Claire alive and well?, is it all an illusion?,
or is she as dead as yesterday's news?
Denzel Washington and "Deja Vu" producer
Jerry Bruckheimer on set. A dead ringer for De Niro's Travis Bickle -- you
lookin' at me? Jim Caviezel, the man formerly known as Jesus Christ in Mel
Gibson's "The Passion of The Christ", does his best "Taxi Driver" impression.
Redemption and romance are a part of "Deja Vu". As Penelope Cruz's
character says in the time-shifting, mind-bending classic "Vanilla Sky" (2001),
"every passing second is another chance to turn it all around." Doug
Carlin heeds this piece of advice, and goes back in time either to perform
miracles, or to (borrow a Lenny Kravitz song) "let love rule". Carlin's
loneliness propels him to act, and the stakes are past very high. He has
already lost his ATF partner Minuti (Matt Craven) to the murderer and he is now
losing himself in this case, and deeply.
Tony Scott however, cannot lose with this film, because any
resulting confusion either from its audience or its characters actually serves
to bolster the very title of the film and its story. We are not sure what
is real and what is not, and it is this gray area that is the key to being in
the deja vu moment, which lasts much longer than the two-hour and eight-minute
running time of the film. Carlin is in the deja vu moment, and so are we,
and for all the flaws and gaps in between in the story written by Bill Marsilii
and Terry Rossio, "Deja Vu" works -- and it works well.
Copyright 2006. PopcornReel.com. All Rights Reserved.
"Deja Vu" is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for
intense sequences of violence and terror, disturbing images and some sensuality.
Incidentally, Val Kilmer, Jim Caviezel and Adam Goldberg co-star. The
film's duration is as earlier stated: two hours and eight minutes.
DEJA VU
Denzel's seen this movie too. Denzel's seen
this movie too.
PopcornReel.com Movie Review: "Deja Vu"
By Omar P.L. Moore/November 22, 2006
I'm very sure this must have happened to me
before: A Denzel double take for Paula Patton, in Tony Scott's "Deja Vu", a
fascinating crime mystery-thriller.