Screenwriters: Bill Marsilii, Terry Rossio
I’ve been struggling with this movie review for about two weeks. Not because the movie is bad – I think it’s one of the top three movies I’ve seen so far this year. The problem is that I thought Déjà Vu was great up until the end. The resolution didn’t make sense to me, and I can’t say why unless I tell you how it ended, which I don’t like to do.
But before we get into that, let’s start with something a little easier, like the plot. Déjà Vu is a fast-paced action/thriller about one possible benefit for being able to travel back in time. This is an original, imaginative and enthralling story about a domestic terrorist (Jim Caviezel) who blows up a ferry with 500 passengers on board. ATF agent Doug Carlin (Washington) is assigned to the case and during the investigation he stumbles upon another dead body, Claire Kuchever (Paula Patton, Hitch), that may or may not be related to the bombing incident.
FBI Agent Andrew Pryzwarra (Val Kilmer) invites Carlin to join their task force to help solve the bombing. The task force has access to top secret U.S. government technology that allows “big brother” to review surveillance, taken from public cameras and satellites, from the past four days to the present. However, the technology turns out to be a time machine of sorts, and they use it to try to prevent the bombing of the ferry and Claire's death.
Now, if you’ve read anything about time travel, you may have heard of what is sometimes referred to as the “grandfather paradox.” Basically, this theory states that if you travel back to the past, there’s a danger you could end up killing your own grandfather before he met your grandmother, which would result in your never being born. Which means that you could never have traveled back to the past, which means you couldn’t kill your grandfather and, therefore, you would be born, and could travel back in time to kill your grandfather… and round and round we go. (Click here and here for detailed explanations about this theory.) Some writers get around this problem by introducing a different theory. Please see the SPOILER section below to continue reading the rest of this discussion.
What I liked: original screenplay; another intelligent, hip, Denzel performance; similar edgy directing style Scott used in Man on Fire
What I didn’t: the title -- déjà vu has nothing to do with time travel; the ending -- see Spoiler section below….
Madeleine says: Worth full price, even with the problems at the end
What do you say?
WARNING: BIG SPOILER AHEAD
This is a little complicated, so I’ll try to keep my stream of consciousness as simple as possible. As you read above, this movie is about traveling back in time to alter events that have already happened to prevent future tragedies from occurring. The screenwriter tries to get around the “grandfather paradox” by introducing another theory – alternative or parallel universes, whereby Doug Carlin travels back in time, takes care of business, stops the bomb from doing any serious damage, and gets killed in the process. Meanwhile, Claire is saved and ends up meeting Doug, who doesn’t recognize her because he hasn’t found her dead body yet because she hasn’t been killed, because the other Doug went back to the past to alter events to stop that from happening. And here’s the $64 million question: Why is Doug Carlin alive? By going back to the past, and getting killed, he never should have met Claire. But apparently, Doug went back to a parallel universe to fix things, and that's why he's still alive in the first universe. Confused yet?
I should tell you that the amount of knowledge I possess regarding physics and time travel could fit inside my contact case. I will also tell you that I do "suspend belief" when the story warrants it. However, this “parallel universe” solution just doesn’t compute.
The big problem I have is, Doug Carlin should not be alive at the end of the movie. Or, Claire should still have died. And if Doug really did fix everything in the other universe, how and why did his actions affect things in the first universe? The whole thing makes my atoms ache. But then I remind myself that it’s just a movie, and even physicists don’t really know for sure if time travel is possible. So, in conclusion, I still recommend seeing Déjà Vu. Just try not to think about the ending too much.
Off I go to read more about parallel universes.
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