Déjà vu
starring Denzel Washington, Val Kilmer, Paula Patton, Bruce Greenwood, Adam Goldberg and Jim Caviezel
written by Bill Marsilii and Terry Rossio
directed by Tony Scott
Rating: ♦♦♦◊◊
I discovered this 2006 science fiction film on an internet list of “under-appreciated” SF movies. It was good. It had an interesting premise, but it got bogged down in the science. I mean, the story didn’t fly, which is why it’s described as “under-appreciated.”
Denzel Washington plays ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) Special Agent Douglas Carlin working with New Orleans police on a terrorist bombing of a river boat there. His investigation leads him to the corpse of a woman on the river bank who was not killed in the bombing attack, but whose body was made to appear as if she was - Claire Kuchever (Paula Patton). Her body was reported to the authorities minutes before the explosion. So, obviously, there’s something funny going on. Carlin pairs up with FBI Special Paul Pryzwarra (Val Kilmer) who introduces him to a secret investigative technique - a computer programme called “Snow White” - that allows the FBI to look back exactly four days into the past.
What “Snow White” is doing is using computers and a big, fancy machine to create a wormhole that folds space, allowing investigators to look at the past, but not to engage with it. Basically, Agent Carlin watches Claire Kuchever still alive - four days in the past, before her murder and before the terrorist bombing. By watching her, they hope to witness her murder in order to identify the suspect after the fact. In addition, the hope to identify the terrorist who planted the bomb on the ship. Agent Carlin falls in love with her. But it’s impossible for him to return to the past to save her. It has to do with the physics of a wormhole and an electromagnetic barrier that has to be crossed that would kill any living biological matter, like a human.
Basically, Agent Carlin discovers how to return four days in time and save Claire. But he can’t stop the bombing. He can interfere with it and change the time line, but the bomb still goes off.
This time, Claire is saved, and Douglas Carlin is killed - killed before encountering himself in the past, thus avoiding an irreconcilable paradox that would complicate the story even more.
Déjà vu is interesting because of the science issues it raises - the physics of space-time and wormholes - plus the philosophical issues of alternate time lines and paradoxes. But the explanation of it in the film is a little dry and challenging. I thought it was a good story that could have been done better. Maybe with 2021 computer graphics and a different kind of audience it can be.