ENTERTAINMENT / Review
Deja Vu
By Michael Sragow (zap2it.com)
Updated: 2006-12-06 15:49
"Deja Vu" is a misnomer. This elaborate, action-packed thriller centers
on a cutting-edge FBI surveillance unit that enlists ATF agent Denzel
Washington to solve the horrible bombing of a jammed New Orleans ferry.
The film is tense and engrossing. But it lacks exactly what the title
advertises: the sense of inexplicable familiarity that should haunt you
as the story unfolds and leave you all a-tingle when it ends.
The director, Tony Scott, and the screenwriters, Terry Rossio and Bill
Marsilii, do a great job of booby-trapping the plot -- making it
impossible to describe without giving something away.
They do a not-so-great job of evoking the dread or joy people get when
they feel they know a person or a place that they've never met or
experienced.
The FBI unit employs sci-fi technology to manipulate time and space; it
allows ATF man Washington to visit scenes leading up to the ferry bombing
from wildly different vantage points.
Still, the overall effect is not "deja vu" but "auto focus." Hazy
pictures gradually come into definition as the moviemakers dribble out
their information.
Director Scott has mastered the technique of using a camera as a visual
eye-dropper, then putting the film together like a liquid mosaic. Whether
or not you buy the flim-flam science, the script's tricks and surprises
keep the movie compelling: they include a brand new wrinkle on the
lane-shifting car chase.
Still, only Washington's unusual power to convey cautious vigilance --
his megawattage wariness -- and the searing urgency of newcomer Paula
Patton -- as the beautiful key to the case -- suffuse the movie with any
emotional momentum. The supporting players have some pungent moments,
including the deceptively alert Val Kilmer as an FBI agent and Adam
Goldberg as the chief FBI techie, who runs on curiosity, mischief and Red
Bull. And the snatches we see of post-Katrina New Orleans, including
still-ravaged districts, bring the film the poignant aura that the
narrative alone should generate -- and, sadly, doesn't.
"Deja Vu" ultimately just simulates flesh and blood on the nuts and bolts
of an overly gimmicky suspense film.
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