Deja Vu

Denzel Washington and Tony Scott do not generally make for a thrilling combination (e.g., Man on Fire) despite the quality of their work otherwise. So I skipped this 2006 release until the other day when the supply was really low and it was available in HD on demand. Deja Vu exceeded my expectations but that’s only because they were so very, very low.

Washington plays Doug Carlin, an ATF agent in the New Orleans office, when one weekday morning someone blows up a ferry full of kids and soldiers and their families, killing over 500 of them. Carlin catches the eye of FBI agent Paul Pryzwarra (Val Kilmer, who gives a paycheck-oriented performance) after he points out that one body was actually found dead five minutes before the explosion and Pryzwarra adds him to his very special investigatory team.

Special because the team is using, for the first time in the field, what they explain to Carlin as a very high power satellite surveillance system that allows them to show in ultrahigh def exactly what happened anywhere within the target area from any angle, with high fidelity sound as well. The catch is that the system can only show what happened four days and six hours in the past, because it takes that long to process the input, and the data flow is so large that it cannot be recorded.

Pryzwarra and the system’s slacker savant developer, played by Adam Goldberg, try to hide the true nature of the device from Carlin but he’s too slick and figures out that it’s actually a camera which sees directly into the past. Or rather, creates a sort of tunnel into the past, through which they can send a signal. Probably a piece of paper, with a warning of the impending explosion, and maybe even a person. A person?! That’s so whack they never had the nerve to test the idea.

The biggest problem is that everything in the movie rests on this magic camera and, despite the explanation that Goldberg’s scientist character eventually provides, is something even this inveterate science fiction fan won’t accept. It’s a combination of a bad take on string theory and inconsistent technology, and the script by Bill Marsilli (whose previous credits are for a couple of kid’s TV cartoons) and Terry Rossio (a better track record but presumably brought in to fix Marsilli’s work) can’t overcome this basic failing.

not recommended