Tampa Film Fan

film fan finding:deja vu

Deju Vu begins in the usual action/adventure/drama movie way:  a New Orleans ferry carrying Navy seamen and their families suddenly explodes, killing and injuring hundreds of passengers.  ATF investigator Doug Carlin (Denzel Washington) assists with the initial investigation and discovers evidence that proves that the explosion was an act of terrorism and not merely a tragic accident. Carlin observes the autopsy of a young woman whose burned body washed up on the shore and learns that she was murdered before the explosion, her body dumped with the other victims in an effort to cover up the murder.

Another investigator (played by Val Kilmer) asks Carlin to participate in “Snow White,” a top-secret surveillance of audio and video footage gathered days earlier by seven satellites orbiting the Earth.  Here is where Deja Vu departs from anything “usual” and explodes into one of the most intriguing, edge-of-your-seat films I’ve seen in a long time.  Carlin discovers Snow White’s secret: that the surveillance team isn’t watching archived footage, but is actually peering into the past, watching events from four days earlier.  Kilmer’s team admits that they accidentally stumbled upon a way to fold time in on itself and create a wormhole that goes back four days in the past.

The film dips into quantum string theory just enough to tease the characters (and the viewers) with the idea that the past can be changed; that Carlin’s team doesn’t have to helplessly watch past events unfold, but can take steps to change the outcome.  Of course, as any time-travel theorist (and fan of The Butterfly Effect) knows, every action — no matter how seemingly trivial — impacts the world in many different ways.  Changing one small thing in the past can change many important things in the present.

Denzel Washington is at the top of his game and plays his character with the right mix of intelligence, compassion, sarcasm and cynicism.  A pudgy and much-older Val Kilmer is able to summon intensity when needed, and Adam Goldberg plays the role he was born to play to perfection: the geeky, highly-intelligent, fast-talking, sarcastic scientific expert.  Deju Vu is one of the best movies of 2006.

Film Fan Finding: A+