Deja Vu

Tony Scott reunites with his Man On Fire (2004) star, Denzel Washington, (and in a smaller way, from his 1986 mega-hit, Top Gun, Val Kilmer) in what is, given Scott’s C.V. and the fact that this was a Jerry Bruckheimer production, a surprisingly engaging action film which starts off appearing to be a police procedural but morphs into a mind-bending, time travel-cum-science fiction movies of sorts.

This is, as they say, not an easy act to follow and the unusual and challenging screenplay by Bill Marsilii and Terry Rossio cleverly allows us to unravel it via the simultaneous on-screen efforts of ATF agent, Doug Carlin (Washington). Carlin, whilst investigating what appears to be a terrorist bombing of a New Orleans ferry, encounters a secret FBI surveillance laboratory that has accidentally discovered how to look at the past. This storyline is interwoven with the murder of a young black woman (Paula Patton) who Carlin comes to realize was somehow connected with the bombing. Carlin eventually works out that the surveillance device can actually interact with past and a la Back To The Future (1985) teleports back in time in an attempt to change the course of events.

Scott cannily keeps everything matter-of-fact, the extraordinary gradually creeping up on the ordinary, thus making for quite intriguing though probably for some, less-than-comprehensible, viewing as the suspense slowly mounts. In its latter stages the film, no doubt in an attempt to win over a mainstream audience, lets go of its cerebral balloon and descends to standard action movie tropes in order to resolve the narrative. A pity, since for the popcorn brigade it would be too little too late and for anyone else it is a far too convenient cop-out.

 

Want something different?