Enjoyable but ultimately forgettable - 60%

Rating: 6/10 (4 September 2009)

Recently, I've been spoiling myself by rewatching some absolute gems on DVD. Reacquainting myself with the likes of "The Lord Of The Rings" trilogy and "WALL·E", it's easy to forget that not all movie are stone-cold classics. Take this middling effort from a couple of year ago. Despite having a big-name lead actor, a director with a proved track record and a superstar producer, it just failed to excite and entertain me in the way I expected. To be honest, I had high hopes for this (certainly the excessive publicity around the time of release suggested this was a corker) but ironically, I suppose hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Denzel Washington plays AFT agent Doug Carlin, called in to investigate a massive explosion on a New Orleans ferry. But after meeting FBI agent Paul Pryzwarra (Val Kilmer), Doug is offered a unique opportunity. Using the latest technology and advances in surveillance, the team use a window into the recent past to uncover the bomber and investigate the murder of a young woman (Paula Patton) who appears to be connected to the bombing. And as Doug begins to develop feelings for the woman, he starts to wonder if he can really change the past for the better.
It's difficult to specify why "Deja Vu" isn't the runaway hit I thought it would be. The plot, while clearly nonsense, offers enough to keep the viewer interested thanks in no small part to Washington as the increasingly perplexed agent. The problem is that like nearly all time-travelling movies, the plot ultimately lets itself down. This isn't a problem with stuff like the "Austin Powers" movies which don't take themselves seriously but "Deja Vu" takes itself very seriously indeed. Personally, I felt a strange sense that nobody was really trying. The action, when it eventually comes, never felt like it was pushing any boundaries and the story takes a long time to get going. At no point did I go "oh, that's cool" or see anything that I felt I hadn't seen before. In a weird way, it reminded me of another Denzel flick "Out Of Time" which wasn't a classic either but through good story-telling and another magnetic performance from Washington, it was eminently watchable. "Deja Vu" is just that, a fine film to watch on TV if nothing else is on but nothing more.
Maybe I've been spoiling myself with classic DVDs too much but in truth, "Deja Vu" isn't in the same league as what I've been watching. Yes, Denzel gives another performance that reminds us why he has a Best Actor Oscar on his mantelpiece but with a typically confused time-travelling plot and lazy direction, it doesn't match the performance Denzel gives it. Like "Out Of Time", he is a big fish in a small pond. With a little more effort and a better ending (which badly let the film down), this may have been the classic I thought it was but sadly, this is a wasted opportunity that's gone by begging. Damn.