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Obsession With Dead Woman Leads Denzel Back In Time in ‘Déjà Vu’ Thriller
BY MAGGIE SCOTT
It’s love at first sight when Doug Carlin (Denzel Washington), an agent with the federal bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, gazes at Claire Kuchever (Paula Patton) on the autopsy table in the convoluted thriller, “Déjà Vu.”
The Mississippi River at New Orleans yielded her body, minus fingers on one of her hands, covered in the same residue that coated the blast scene of a recent ferry explosion, and still bewitching of countenance, as Doug gazes into the still life-like dark pools of her open eyes.
Although the evidence is still being gathered, terrorism is being blamed for the murder of over 500 men, women and children. Yet, Doug is convinced the person who planted the bombs is the same person who murdered Claire and somehow made it look like she was one of the ferry victims.
With inferred blessing by the NOPD and the FBI, Doug starts sleuthing: quizzing Claire’s father about his daughter’s whereabouts prior to her death and searching through Claire’s home, where he discovers bloody towels and a message from ATF headquarters on her answering machine. Seeking additional enlightenment, Doug is shown eye-opening satellite surveillance video. Very quickly it’s apparent that this isn’t your typical spy footage.
Incredulous, Doug begins to grasp the significance of what he’s seeing and what is being revealed about a technology that could alter the course of the past. Claire and the others on the ferry could be saved. All it takes is a worm hole in the membrane between the parallel universes of present and past, a lot of kilowatts and a man so smitten by a woman he is willing to risk his life to doff most of his clothes and have his atoms scattered through space.
The time machine works and Doug races against the clock to find Claire and get to the ferry. With heart-thumping twists and turns, director Tony Scott puts the hero and his lady love through perilous feats of defiance of the terrorist (Jim Caviezel) and his belief that the bomb is “destiny” and its victims the “cost of freedom.”
Denzel Washington rises above the head-scratching absurdity of the main premise to deliver a stalwart performance of romantic bravado that by the closing scenes will have you cheering.
A Jerry Bruckheimer Films production, Touchstone Pictures release, rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and terror, disturbing images and some sensuality.
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