Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2617 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-05-14
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL
• Original language: English, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 121 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
In his most effective thriller since Enemy of the State, Tony Scott makes time travel seem plausible. It helps that his New Orleans hero, ATF agent Doug Carlin (Denzel Washington in his third go-round with the director), spends more time in the present than the past. In order to catch a terrorist, FBI Agent Pryzwarra (Val Kilmer) invites Carlin to join forces. They have the technology to see the past. He has the expertise to interpret the data. Unfortunately, the bomb has already gone off and hundreds of ferry passengers have died. Then there's the body of a beautiful woman, Claire Kuchever (Paula Patton, Idlewild), that turns up in the vicinity of the blast. Evidence indicates she was killed beforehand. Since the FBI enables him to observe Claire prior to her murder, Carlin gets to know what she was like and finds himself falling in love. He becomes convinced that the only way to solve the case--and prove her innocence--is to travel to the past. But as Pryzwarra's colleague, Denny (Adam Goldberg), argues, "You cannot go back in time. It's physically impossible." Or so he says. Déjà Vu is constructed around a clever script and executed by a top-notch cast, notably Washington, Patton, and an eerie Jim Caviezel (miles away from Passion of the Christ). In shedding the excesses of recent years--the sadism of Man on Fire and weirdness of Tarantino favorite Domino--Scott re-affirms his rep as one of the action movie's finest practitioners. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Synopsis
When a New Orleans ferry carrying 500 passengers is destroyed by a bomb, Doug Carling; a newly-recruited FBI agent is drafted in to track down the perpetrator. When a body is found floating in the river, it is determined that the victim was murdered before the ferry blast occurred. Unfortunately, the victim was the impossibly beautiful Claire Kuchever (Paula Patton), whose death has begun to torment Carlin. Adding a new level to the investigation is a top-secret FBI invention, which allows a select group to view the past on screen as if it had been videotaped days earlier. The more Carlin sees of Kuchever, the more connected to her he becomes, until he decides to risk his life by travelling back in time and altering the course of history.

Customer Reviews

Pretty Poor
In the beginning of what appears at first glance to be a well constructed thriller, Tony Scott (Top Gun, True Romance) seems to very carefully lay a number of important building blocks in place. I was impressed with the first half hour of so of the movie, one I wished to see because, in spite of some turkeys, Tony Scott has turned in some great pieces too. Once the sci-fi element was unravelled, the scripting went to great pains to make suspension of disbelief as easy as possible on the part of the viewer, once again a point for the movie-makers.

It wasn't long, however, before the whole thing just descended into an absurd action mish mash, the viewer's credulity being stretched further every moment, and seemed to abandon the carefully constructed base on which it was built in favour of mediocre visuals and irregular pacing. Add to this an ordinary performance from Denzel Washington (not that he had much to work with), and a comprehensively phoned in performance from Val Kilmer (he didn't have much to work with, but he didn't even bother using that), and all in all you've got a fairly hopeless result. I gave it two stars because the first half hour proved that there was probably a decent film in there somewhere. Sadly though, no-one in the production team showed any interest in freeing it.

A genuinely interesting take on the time travel story that sells out its ending
This could have been a great film. Its take on time travel, which for the majority of the film is predicated on the idea of inevitability, the impossibility of altering a person's story, is fresh and vividly portrayed. The film excites visually as well as intellectually. Scott's direction is beautifully measured and Washington delivers another great everyman performance. It even has some truly innovative set pieces, especially a car chase sequence that takes place simultaneously in different times. And then all of this is thrown away on a Hollywood ending that destroys the logic the film has worked so hard to establish, and without that logic, the whole thing is meaningless.

There are still some good reasons to see this movie, but it is a real pity that Scott et al did not have the courage of their convictions and deliver a time travel picture where the protagonists are unable to manipulate themselves a better present and future and a happier ending.

Very enjoyable thriller if you're prepared to go along for the ride
Déjà vu is a film that's best watched if you know absolutely nothing about it. So, if you like Denzel Washington and want to see an enjoyable action thriller from the guy who made The Last Boy Scout, True Romance and Enemy Of The State, I encourage you to read no further and give this one a go without even perusing the back of the DVD box. For anyone curious to know a little more (don't worry, I won't give too much away), read on.

Are you sure? Okay, here we go. This one centres around an ATF agent (Washington) who's investigating a very nasty bombing on a New Orleans ferry. Washington, who has formed a kind of emotional connection to one particularly pretty victim, teams up with a group of guys using a sophisticated piece of surveillance equipment to monitor the events leading up to the explosion in the hope of finding clues to the bomber's identity. At this point, the film veers away from your standard-issue, CSI-style police procedural and heads off toward science fiction land. And that's it. I'm not telling you any more.

Washington's as good as usual in this one, oozing that same confidence and easy charm he always does, and he's helped out by a solid supporting cast. Val Kilmer's decent, but Adam Goldberg is better, and he adds some nice humour to the film. Best of all is Jim Caviezel, who makes the most of his limited screen time as the committed and creepy terrorist everyone is so desperate to find before he strikes again.

Your attitudes to two things will decide whether you enjoy Déjà vu. One is the technology at its core, known as `Snow White', which is sort of tough to swallow. When I say the film becomes science fiction, I mean the machinery that drives the plot can't possibly exist, so you have to be prepared to suspend your disbelief for this one. The other is Tony Scott's directorial style, which I know some find irritating. He's toned things down since the fidgety, hyperactive Man On Fire and Domino, but the film still kind of looks like an advert for coffee or a sports car, all swirly and glossy and slick.

I was happy to overlook those things, however, because I liked Washington's character, the story was engaging and tense, and because it went off in directions I wasn't expecting. In fact, I had no clue what to expect at all, so this tightly written, well executed thriller (liberally sprinkled with Sci-Fi) came as a pleasant and unusual surprise. Hopefully, it will be the same for all those who took my advice and cleared off after the first paragraph. Good on you, people who didn't read this far.