First glance of Déjà Vu's DVD cover presents what appears to be another action flick with a bunch of good looking people looking too cool for school. Not that there's anything wrong with that, they can't all be "Agent PW" (Peewee Herman), but with the oversaturation of such action flicks it's easy to let one slip past you. Then I noticed who directed this film: the late, great Tony Scott.
Tony Scott committed suicide by jumping off a bridge in 2012. We'll get to that in a minute. First let's go back in time, as this movie does (speaking of which, here's all you need to know about Déjà Vu's plot in 1 sentence: the movie opens with a tragedy in the first 5 minutes, and the remaining 121 minutes take our hero on a wild ride to unravel the truth and possibly... change it?).
Tony Scott, younger brother of Ridley Scott ("Alien", "Blade Runner", "Prometheus"), was just as stylish and atmospheric with his films. Although best known for the more mainstream "Top Gun", "Days of Thunder" and "Beverly Hills Cop II", he first turned heads with his phenomenal debut "The Hunger", which was to vampire flicks what Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" was to scifi flicks. It brought a degree of sobriety and realism to a genre dominated by fantasy and cheesy special effects. Or in other words: "sh!t gets real."
Here in Déjà Vu, we get the same sober treatment of "time travel" movies. It's not just Marty McFly flooring a suped up Delorean and cruising into the past. Rather, we are presented the somewhat credible idea of being able to observe the past in real-time, similar to the way our telescopes allow us to observe the past of stars unfolding in real-time even though they have burned out billions of years ago. That's about all we get as far as explanations which I think is good. Nobody wants to spend 15 minutes talking about flux capacitors and stuff when people are about to get killed.
The action doesn't let up for a single moment. That doesn't mean that there are continuous car chases and shootouts, but what I mean is that there's a thick air of tension that Tony Scott achieves even during quiet moments because there is always a sense of impending peril. Take the opening 5 minutes, for example. Even if you hadn't read the IMDb description (which I always advise people not to!) and even if I hadn't told you that there's a tragedy in the first 5 minutes, you can feel something is going to happen because that's what Tony Scott conveys to us from the 1st frame.
A quick word about the acting, even though it should be obvious with Denzel Washington: fantastic. He reprises his signature action role of a loner who's somewhat cynical but not above showing tremendous humanity and compassion in addition to explosive outbursts. He also adds some great comedic moments, although most of the film's comic relief is handled by the excellent Adam Goldberg (remember Chandler's psycho roommate for 3 episodes of "Friends"?) who plays the fast talking, sarcastic, pop-culture-quoting computer nerd "Denny" who throws out zingers referencing everything from "Saturday Night Live" to "Airplane!" Now back to director Tony Scott and his suicide (you thought I had forgotten).
The undisputed power of this film is carried by its mystery. I'm not just talking about whodunnit, but more importantly: whydunnit? Powerful themes of fatalism vs. free will, acceptance vs. action, and even a tasteful dose of logic vs. spiritualism are thrown at us around every corner. The result is a thriller where we can't figure out the director's strategy or motive until the very last scene. Some filmmakers are somewhat predictable (you always know Disney will end happy, you always know John Carpenter will end with a few gallons of blood). But here Tony Scott plays with his cards so close to his chest, and not only that but he fakes us out quite a few times, that your fingernails will be deeply imprinted in the armrest of your chair or the flesh of the unlucky person sitting next to you. And isn't that how Tony Scott left this world? An unexplained suicide (although some family members mentioned a secret battle with cancer, the coroner's official report showed no cancer, no serious medical conditions), the only thing that everyone could agree on was that Tony's leap from the bridge was "inexplicable". Who knows, maybe watching this film will give you some insight into the mind of the great director. Perhaps coincidentally, a bridge figures into this movie as a prominent symbol.
Who knows, maybe you just wanted to watch a run-of-the-mill action flick with a bunch of good looking people looking too cool for school. But there's so much more here. Déjà Vu will definitely make you do a double-take.
