A great story, badly told

Rating: 4/10 (5 July 2009)

Despite the low rating I gave this movie, Deja Vu remains one of my favorite movies of all time, but purely because of the story line. It is a story about time-travel, about crime, about fate and human compassion. It is interesting and engaging, and I think that's why I like this movie, and why so many others like it. The cinematography is great too.
However, the script and acting are absolutely shocking. It doesn't feel at all like we're watching a movie. It feels like we're listening in on a bunch of people making small talk for two hours. The characters repeat themselves, give small and irrelevant orders and make lame jokes. These are things that could be acceptable in our normal lives, but in a movie it just makes it look like the writer got lazy. I'm sure the intention of this is to make the characters seem more real, but in the end they just seem fake and awkward.
The only character in the movie that has any substance is claire, and she spends 50% of the movie in a morgue. She comes across as a sweet girl with a headstrong personality, which is just enough for us to love her. Denzel Washington does not play a multi-dimensional character. He plays a character that is two-faced and confusing. We see few aspects of his personality. One of them being his compassion for claire, the other his skepticism and anger at his team when they "refuse" to tell him information about the machine. Might I add, his anger in that scene seems totally uncalled for. It seems like his team try their absolute best to answer his questions, and yet he blows a fuse at them for "not telling him anything". Either this was used to create drama, but ended up creating confused stares in the audience, or its just plain bad acting. For the rest of the time, denzel is sleepwalking, as are the rest of the characters. We are not watching people. We are watching dummies that can display a stereotypical range of emotions, and say whatever they're supposed to say to fulfill their role but absolutely nothing more.
The problems with the plot are massive and hard to ignore. The surveillance system has an apoplexy when a small piece of paper is sent into the past, yet when a living, breathing human body is sent there seems to be minimal damage. Also, it seems like Doug took the hard way out of solving the case on purpose, or he's just really dumb. He insisted that a warning note be sent to him on his desk, and yet he seems to know that there is no point because he is about to leave his desk, putting his friend in danger. When he goes back in time, he could easily inform the police or the ATF that the bombing is about to occur, but instead he insists on being the hero himself. Of course, if he had taken the easy way out, there would be no story. But maybe if there were no story we wouldn't have to sit through this movie for so long.
I gave this 4 stars because I liked the premise and the visual aspect, but everything else is a failure. Maybe in a few years there'll be a remake, and my rating will be higher for that. I would recommend that you see this movie if you're interested in crime and time-travel, but don't see it again, you'll kick yourself for ever liking this movie the first time round.