Déjà Vu (PG-13)
Violent terrorism thriller has sci-fi twists.
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- Studio: Touchstone Pictures, Touchstone Pictures
- Directed By: Tony Scott
- Cast: Val Kilmer, Denzel Washington, Paula Patton
- Running Time: 125 minutes
- Release Date: 11/21/2006
- Video/DVD Release Date: 04/24/2007
- Genre: Thriller
- MPAA Rating: PG-13
- MPAA Explanation: intense sequences of violence and terror, disturbing images and some sensuality.
Parents need to know
Families can talk about the concept of déjà vu: How does it provide a dramatic hook for a movie? What are the characters' different motivations (revenge, self-sacrifice, desire, revulsion, science, faith, etc.)? How do different motivations lead to different results? Families can also discuss the possibilities of time travel. What would you change about your own behavior if you could go back in time? Did you know this movie was about time travel before you saw it? Do you think marketers and producers consciously chose to downplay that angle? Why?
Message
Social Behavior:
Authorities lie to Doug to solicit his help; a plainly disturbed terrorist believes his cause (mass murder) is justified to prove that he's fit for military service. On the plus side, the hero is utterly noble.
Consumerism:
Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco:
Cigarette smoking (by coroner in morgue and by villain during interrogation); quick joke about "smoking hash."
Violence
The film opens with a harrowing scene of a terrorist attack on a ferry (explosion, flames, bloody bodies on fire and floating in water), which is later repeated; weapons include guns, bombs, knives, and plier-cutters; Claire's dead body is seen at the morgue (burned, fingers cut off, bloody); bloody rags in sink; ATF agent shot/burned by villain; lengthy car chase (cars crash and flip); hero shot through windshield; kidnap victim with a bag on head is doused in gasoline (about to be burned); villain shoots guard on ferry; time-travel machine results in violent permutations of traveler's face/figure.
Sex
Images of Claire in some states of undress as she's watched by the investigators.
Language
Minor language ("rat's ass").
Common Sense says
What's the story?
Reviewed by Cynthia Fuchs
A thriller with a science-fiction twist, DÉJÀ VU begins with a terrorist attack -- a bomb explodes aboard a ferry carrying Navy sailors on leave. Among the authorities trying to sort out the crime scene is ATF agent Doug Carlin (Denzel Washington), who's particularly good at reading details. His acute interpretations of bomb residues, bodies, and video surveillance tapes draw the attention of FBI special agent Pryzwarra (Val Kilmer), who recruits Doug for a special anti-terrorism team. Complications arise when Doug learns that one woman's body (Claire) shows signs of the explosion -- even though she died minutes before the bomb went off. The FBI trots out surveillance technology that enables them to observe her last few days, hoping that she'll lead them to the terrorist. Doug quickly figures out that this set-up isn't what it appears to be – the FBI has the ability to "warp the very fabric of space."
Is it any good?
Washington's focused performance holds the movie's various generic and thematic strands together. Doug is certainly an intrepid and even romantic hero, devoting himself to Claire's case. But he's also a believably skeptical detective, and his questions about motives and technologies tend to mirror the audience's. This third collaboration between Washington and director Tony Scott (the others being 2004's Man on Fire and 1995's Crimson Tide) combines elaborate stunts and psychological ambiguities in order to challenge audience expectations.
The effectiveness of this combination is manifest in the movie's characterization of suspect Carroll Oerstadt (Jim Caviezel). His desire for revenge against the U.S. military is at once personal and political, with oblique connections to current recruitment concerns as well as definitions of "patriotism." Such details make Déjà Vu, although uneven, more intriguing than the usual action thriller.
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