Netflix Review: Deja Vu (2007)

Good Thing She's Hot!

Déjà Vu
Suggested Netflix Queue Position: 783, right behind Shaggy Dog

Raise your hand if you thought that Déjà Vu would attempt to be a time travel movie? OK, now raise your hands if, were you funding said time travel movie, you would have selected Tony Scott to direct? That’s what I thought.

Denzel Washington stars as Doug Carlin, an ATF agent assigned to investigate the terrorist bombing of a ferry in New Orleans. Carlin is alerted to the discovery of the body of Claire Kuchever (played by Paula Patton), who washed ashore a little ways down from the scene of the explosion. It washes ashore a bit too early to be a casualty from the explosion, so Carlin senses that the deceased woman may play a bigger role in the case than first expected.

Val “Let’s Film Tombstone II” Kilmer plays FBI Agent Pryzwarra, assigned to the case. The inter-agency jurisdiction over the case is never really made clear throughout the film; it’s just a disorganized band of federal, state and local officials looking for stuff.

Pryzwarra seems to think that Carlin is talented, so he invites him to be on a special FBI task force investigating the incident through the use of a nifty machine which “folds space onto itself.” Don’t get too technical on us, Tony.

The machine is able to see 4-1/2 days into the past, so the FBI crew + Carlin (who didn’t fill out any security clearance paperwork, by the way) use it to find out who planted the bomb. The room which houses the machine is the typical action film technology center: huge TV screens, insultingly easy buttons and joysticks, and the resident squad of rebellious, witty geeks.

While seeing 4-1/2 days into the past, the crew spies on Claire, watching her nude up in the shower. No word on the taxpayers’ reaction to the use of this mind-blowing machine to voyeur. In the process, Carlin falls for Claire, which accelerates his desire to solve the case.

Luckily for Carlin, Claire is drop dead gorgeous, otherwise we might not have a film. If she was a cow, Carlin might have just arrested the closest person to the ferry. He doesn’t seem to care much about the lives of the other hundreds on board the ferry. He just wants to save the hottie.

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Déjà Vu is the most recent effort by Tony Scott, who also directed such masterpieces as The Fan, Enemy of the State, and Spy Game. As his resume suggests, Scott is so far in over his head with this kind of material, that it should come as no surprise that this doesn’t really pass for a time travel movie at all. It’s the typical action film with cheap time travel packaging.

I don’t need to tell you how this film ends – it’s obvious. I just wish I could “fold space onto itself” and prevent the studio from ever green-lighting this mess.