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Déjà Vu (2006)

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Synopsis

Tony Scott and Jerry Bruckheimer re-team for this all action sci-fi thriller. Denzel Washington plays super agent Doug Carlin, who has come to New Orleans to investigate the explosion of a ferry on the Mississippi that killed over 500 people. Aided by a crack team of government scientists and their high-tech surveillance-cum-time travelling system, Carlin journeys back to before the blast to try and prevent the disaster. An already complex situation is further confused by Carlin’s less than professional infatuation with one of the victims.

Movie review

From Time Out London

Terrorists beware. The finite divisions of time and space are no longer a cloak with which to conceal yourself from the American law enforcement agencies. According to ‘Déjà Vu’, the new soulless morale-booster from Tony Scott, in the near future, your tax dollars will not only enable governments to catch criminals, but they’ll be able to prevent crime from ever happening in the first place.

Roughly two minutes after Jerry Bruckheimer’s name and production insignia have flashed across the opening titles, a New Orleans passenger ferry explodes, killing 500 people. It’s the stock American Tragedy the government has been waiting for to try out a new piece of kit: a time portal that leads four days and seven hours (why?) into the past. Denzel Washington is the charismatic investigator invited on to a special unit (led by a worryingly plump Val Kilmer) to stop patriotic loon Jim Caviezel from teaching the world a lesson with his trusty pick-up truck full of explosives.

Scott’s customary tics and traits are all here, from the washed-out palette to his patented inability to keep the camera still for anything nearing a second (it’s as if he’s directing every shot from the cockpit of a helicopter with half his mind on the controls and the other on his half-lit stogie). Take away a couple of neatly staged action sequences and you’re left with a callously measured slab of US jingoism that deals with the most horrific human tragedies in the most lunk-headed and insulting way possible. But the message is clear: don’t worry, people, the forces of evil have been licked. Thank God for time travel.

Author: David Jenkins 2006-12-12 11:12:38

Time Out London Issue 1895: December 13-20 2006