After nearly 11 consecutive roles as a big-city cop/detective, Denzel Washington’s latest crime thriller still provides plenty of bang for your buck: a gorgeous leading lady, plenty of plot twists, high-caliber detective work and, of course, obligatory high-speed chases and explosions.
In his standard role as an investigatory government agent, Denzel Washington time travels to catch a terrorist.a
This time, one such explosion is the primary fuel for the plot. A terrorist plan is underway somewhere in New Orleans. Its target: a crowded ferry on its way to a Fat Tuesday party carrying hundreds of Navy men and their families. Without any warning, a car on the parking deck rigged for demolition explodes — sending automobiles, crew and passengers flying and flaming into the air. Hundreds die and all the evidence, along with any hope of solving the crime, sinks to the bottom of the muddy Mississippi.
As the police, the U.S. Coast Guard and federal agencies descend upon the scene, a report comes in of a charred body recovered upstream nearly an hour before the blast. Desperate for answers, they call on the only man for the job: Denzel.
This time, he has the help of Special Agent Pryzwarra (Val Kilmer) and Dr. Denny (Allen Goldberg), who introduce Agent Doug Carlin (Washington) to the latest in top-secret government super-toys: a time machine. But unlike the standard bodily time travel of movies like the “”Terminator”” series — often threatening to alter the present for better or worse — or windows into the future that cause disasters instead of cure them, a la “”Paycheck,”” this machine can only show the past as it happened, with a 96-hour delay. The device’s crack team of super-smart and extremely well-funded detectives cannot rewind to this morning’s bombing and do something to prevent it; they can only investigate the crime before it happens, then use that information to catch the culprit.
The movie cannot escape the plot-hole curse that has plagued every time-travel story since Jules Vern, but it does conjure up unique flavors of action and suspense, even managing romance between Carlin and the ill-fated Claire Kuchever (Paula Patton). Carlin slowly falls in love as he and Pryzwarra play retroactive peeping toms with their device, which not only peeks into the past but through walls as well. Cue the mandatory shower scene.
Action scenes get a dose of engaging absurdity when Carlin chases the villain’s ghost via a remote. For instance, as the terrorist (James Caviezel) drives beyond the range of their semi-omniscient observation, Carlin dons “”The Goggles of Car Chases Past”” to follow the terrorist’s phantom SUV through the streets of New Orleans. He can see the car in real time as it was four days ago, but must contend with the traffic of the present, and crashes into every car in his wake.
For die-hard fans of the signature Denzel experience and sci-fi nerds hungry for another trip through an Einstein-Rosen bridge-wormhole alike, “”Deja Vu”” fulfills all expectations and gives just a little bit more.
