Déjà Vu
Directed by Tony Scott
By Travis Mackenzie Hoover

Normally, and against my better judgment, I like Tony Scott and his pointless visual élan. But there’s no denying that he’s buried a more interesting movie in Déjà Vu’s action theatrics. Denzel Washington plays a New Orleans ATF agent who’s called in to solve the bombing of a ferry. After discovering evidence of himself at some of the crime scenes, he’s introduced to a machine that can fold space and thus give us a glimpse into the past. Everyone, of course, is all for using it to merely solve the crime but Washington becomes smitten with the crime’s unwilling female accessory and decides that something has to be done to save her. Left unmentioned is the fact that such a surveillance device would be controversial to say the least, but the movie completely misses out on such an angle for the sake of cop show theatrics. There is, indeed, nobody better for cop show theatrics than Tony Scott but while getting down to the chase-and-shoot business he ignores the better movie lurking on the fringes. And no matter how pretty his pictures or slam-bang his action, the inescapable fact is that the theoretical movie is a constant distraction from the one on display. What could have been a Pynchon-ian effort in baroque paranoia becomes merely one more piece of Jerry Bruckheimer slop opera. Bruckheimer and Scott both have their qualities but one of them shouldn’t be the taunting of the audience with hints of films beyond what they can deliver. Extras include an okay “surveillance window” feature that alternates commentary with clips of the production and eight deleted/extended scenes with Scott commentary. (Touchstone/Buena Vista)
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