Review of Déjà Vu (2006) by Sorrel * — 30 Jun 2013

Deja Vu isn't a film I would miss, because it teams up Academy Award Winning legendary actor Denzel Washington with awesome action film director Tony Scott, and their other work on Crimson Tide and Man on Fire has been thoroughly entertaining.

Deja Vu is a little slow to start off with, with the first 30 minutes seemingly dragging on for a while without much action which didn't live up to the loose synopsis I read on the back of my Blu-Ray cover. The action also doesn't kick off for a long time and the majority of the first hour of the film is bereft of action and reliant on setting up the thrills in the atmosphere. Although this proves effective, I was hoping for more action in a Tony Scott film with a plot such as this one. Plus, my friend told me this was his favourite action film next to Taken after seeing it, and so I expected a significantly larger amount of action than there actually was.

Also, the entire "Snow White" theme wasn't a realistic one and since Deja Vu took place in a modern setting it wasn't able to play it off as easily as a film like Blade Runner could, although its a thing the viewer needs to he able to embrace. It just didn't have a science fiction atmosphere or convincing set for the story and so the viewer's imagination was required to be convinced. It seemed like a theme just casually played into the set of a basic action thriller.

Essentially, it seems as if Tony Scott seems to have ignored many important elements within the script, resulting in a poorly plotted story. But he hasn't ignored the story to focus on the action since the action is actually minimal for much of the film due to the intention to focus on the criminal thrills, and essentially it just seems like he went for a more character-driven science fiction thriller, but he failed to find a balance, even though he did create a good film in the technical sense and applied a strong atmosphere. Although he did direct the action sequences well as usual, so his talent for that is good as usual.

I probably would have enjoyed Deja Vu more if I knew it was going to be the slowly paced thriller that it was, but since I was expecting more high-octane action I felt a little empty after witnessing it.

But still, I did enjoy Deja Vu.

The entire plot was an interesting one and had similarities to the 2011 Jake Gyllenhaal Science-Fiction thriller Source Code. Although it isn't as clever, I was consistently interested in the dynamics. It explored the line between time in an interesting manner and even supplied a compelling story into it which was driven by a clever script which required actors who were dedicated to their characters, and that's just what Deja Vu received.

In a routine good performance was Denzel Washington finding the fine line between being a badass and being a character with true heart, which is a talent that has come naturally to him in all his work with Tony Scott. He supplies the perfect lead because his character has a sense of confidence in his job balanced with the forced ability to adapt to his new situation. Him and Tony Scott always make a good team.

Jim Caviezel also supplies a good villain, because although his motives are not fully clear due to script inconsistencies, his performance as a twisted and vengeful reject is portrayed with fine acting talent.

One performance I found standing out was that of Erika Alexander's as Shanti. I haven't seen Erika Alexander in anything since her stint on the last two seasons of The Cosby Show as Pam Tucker, but within her brief scenes in Deja Vu she finely delivers her lines very confidently and uses emotional intensity when needed, and she does so without flinching in a surprisingly great manner. Her career is still alive and it's great to see her up and at it in a successful Tony Scott film, much like The Cosby Show co-star Lisa Bonet when she starred in Enemy of the State.

Essentially, Deja Vu was an interesting, albeit inconsistent science fiction thriller with a fine cast and good technicals.