On the way out of Deja Vu, I approached two fellow audience members to inquire if I could ask them what they thought about the movie. They graciously agreed. I intended to use a few choice remarks in my review, but the whole conversation turned out to be so choice that I changed my mind and decided to use large segments as part of a She and Me Conversation Review. In this Conversation Review, you will find two separate conversations--one between Me and Christopher and Kevin and one between She and Me. These conversations, which follow brief comments, are faithfully recreated from recollection.    View Movie Trailer through IMDb.com

Deja Vu, a Jerry Bruckheimer film, is directed by Tony Scott (Domino) and stars Denzel Washington (Inside Man) as Doug Carlin with stunning Paula Patton (Idlewild) as Claire Kuchever. Val Kilmer (Moscow Zero) and James Caviezel (Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius) play Agent Pryzwarra and Carroll Oerstadt. I was hooked from the beginning. The introduction of events is suspense raising and the later introduction of Denzel Washington onto the scene is one of the best character introductions I've seen: a portion, an opaque glare, emergence. Love it. But, as you'll see, mine is not the only word on the subject.

I have to applaud Tony Scott for the gloved hand he used in directing the catastrophe scenes and the shower scene. There are many beautiful and happy children involved in the set up of the first catastrophe, and I was holding my breath in horror anticipating seeing the children as part of the visual experience of the disaster when it came. And, had I seen that--had I seen children or representations of children in the immediate aftermath of the event--I would have cried "Foul!" quite loudly: that "Foul!" may have even surpassed Sidney Pollack's "Foul!" for the opening minutes of The Interpreter. But the foul never occurred. Only grown men were shown being effected immediately following the advent of the catastrophe. A fact for which I congratulate Scott. He used the same gloved hand in the shower scene: Claire (Paula Patton) had her back to the camera until one split-second when she turned to profile to quickly pull the shower curtain closed behind her.

Then came the car crashes. What was Tony Scott thinking here? Is there a destruction crazed audience demographic that demands to be satisfied? And if there is such a demographic, should they not be patently disregarded? Think again, Mr.Scott. Think again. Oh. Yes. Too late this time. Think better next time round. Much better. Think as you thought in the other parts.

Deja Vu: A She and Me Conversation Review with Christopher and Kevin

She: Christopher and I both thought the beginning of Deja Vu was slow and neither one of us knew anything about Deja Vu when we went in to see it. And you and Kevin both liked the beginning, and you both knew something about Deja Vu.

Me: Oh! Interesting. So, you think we liked the opening because we were prepared, but you and Christopher weren't? So then, the trailer was preparatory. So--there are beneficial trailers. So, now I can talk about Spoiler Trailers and Preparatory Trailers. Good.

She: Yes, there are: Preparatory Trailers. But I think Christopher is right: the beginning is boring.

Me: "Silly." Christopher said "silly."

She: Well, yes, and I agree

Me: What exactly is it about the opening of Deja Vu that you would say is boring or silly?

She: Going around looking at evidence.

Me: You mean the part when everything is swirling around and he is seeing everything as though from alternating internal and external points of view: the part with the cinematography (Paul Cameron) I really like--even though it isn't a new technique--because it gives the sense altering points of view?

She: Yeah, that.

Me: Just that? Anything else?

She: All the parts where he is looking for evidence.

Me: Like at the house? That was boring and silly for you?

She: No. I liked the house. The house part is terrific. You don't know what is going to happen. I had to prepare myself so I wouldn't scream.

Me: You did.

She: Didn't you see me brace myself?

Me: Yes I did, but I didn't think you'd confess to it. So, you mean like when he found the bit of blue thing and the earring and the wire and when he went to the investigation headquarters?

She: Yeah, those things. It looked just like an episode of CSI Crime Scene.

Me: Well, I don't know CSI, so I wouldn't catch that. But because you do, you think that part was silly, like Christopher said?

She: Yeah. At first I kept thinking, "Is this going to be just another episode of CSI?"

Me: But it isn't...?

She: No. It isn't another CSI. Once they get to the house, it changes.

Me: Speaking of the house: What do you think of the romance part of Deja Vu?

She: Great. The romance is great. I really like her (Paula Patton).

Me: I loved what Kevin said when I asked him and Christopher what they thought about the romance:

        Codie: So what did you think about the romance? Either of you, both of you....?

        Kevin: I liked the romance. It was important to the whole thing.

        Christopher: It provided the whole motivation.

        Kevin: It was the relationship that solved the crime.

        Christopher: It was the basis for the whole motivation: everything for love....

        Kevin: When he was looking at her...I think he may have had a deja vu moment there....

Me: "It was the relationship that solved the crime." Perfect. So, what do you think about the deja vu theme?

She: I like it. I see it realized in two places. And Christopher was right when he said "the premise is intriguing," what with all the science and all.

Me: I think so, too. And I saw the deja vu theme in two places at first, too, but what Kevin said about when Doug Carlton (Denzel Washington) sees her for the first time makes the deja vu theme seem much more prevalent. I don't think I agree with Kevin; I don't think Doug did have a deja vu moment the FIRST time he laid eyes on Claire, although she certainly did sink deeply into his soul then. Even so, when you think about it, the bad guy, Carroll Oerstadt (James Caviezel) talked in nothing but deja vu-like language and the investigative team was continually participating in deja vu-like events--then come the obvious deja vu moments between him and her and even between him and himself.... It seems to me that the suggestion of deja vu-like experiences as a plausible universal reality, though elusive and intangible, is inherent in the scientists' explanation of divergent space-time paths.

She: One thing in the film was incongruous with itself: all the car accidents. He, Doug, goes through all the trouble to save 400, 500 people and then carelessly goes through all those car accidents. That is just ridiculous and completely out of character and out of keeping with the tone of the whole of Deja Vu.

Me: That's absolutely right. I'm so glad you brought that up. I thought that was wholly out of place, too. Tony Scott was so careful to not show women or children in the opening blasting fire scenes of Deja Vu, and they handled the bathroom shower scene with obvious care. So why smash through all those cars and the lives we symbolically associate with them?  If such must be, then ONE would have sufficiently made the point!

She: All those car crashes made Doug Carlin look like a cardboard character.

Me: You're right: driving through the city like that leaving trails of wreckage behind. And Christopher and Kevin are both from New Orleans.

        Christopher: And we're both from there. We're from New Orleans...I bet a lot of it was filmed before   Katrina and then they went back and filmed some more afterward.

        Codie: All those scenes showing the extent of destruction left by Katrina...

        Christopher: Ward 9. That was what's called Ward 9. It was just like that. It was just destroyed.

        Codie: And you think some of it was filmed before Katrina?

        Christopher: Oh yeah...

        Kevin: Oh yeah, you can see it is...

        Christopher: ...that hospital? Charity hospital? It's not there anymore...

        Kevin: It's gone...

        Christopher: ...it's gone.

        Codie: Then, you could see they added film in other parts that were post Katrina...?

        Christopher: Oh yeah. A lot of it was definitely post Katrina. The French Quarter was so dirty. That was definitely after. And the bushes. They were ruined. In the downtown parts, all the bushes there, you could see they were all ruined. That was after Katrina.

        Codie: Seeing this--what did you, how.. what were your thoughts (I'm trying to think of word that isn't "feelings"!)

        Kevin: Homesick

        Christopher: Reminders

        Codie: Memories...?

        Kevin: Um-hm

        Christopher: Oh! Yeah.

        Codie: Did you happen to see the dedication at the end of the movie?

        Christopher: Yeah. "To the sincerity and courage of the people of New Orleans..."

        Codie: To the.... What was it...? "To the strength and courage of the people..."

        Kevin: ...of New Orleans."

        Christopher: ...of New Orleans."

        Codie: How do you think that dedication in honor of the Katrina event fits in with this movie?

        Christopher: Well probably...that they went back there and finished making the movie and contributed economically.

        Kevin: Also, it is a movie about a disaster...that was prevented by competent government action, which relates to Katrina because it was a disaster that could have been prevented by competent government action. I think there is definitely an underlying comment there.

Me: And to see their neighborhood and their home on the screen.... I failed to phrase it rightly, but what I wondered was if they thought it an intrusion into grief to show the devastation of New Orleans in a movie...they didn't seem to think so, though....

        Kevin: Our building was right there. You could see our building all the time. It was right next to the wharf there. Every time anyone went in or out of the wharf area, you could see our building.

        Christopher: Yeah. It was right there. Everyone kept going by it.

        Kevin: It's still there. Home is still there.

Me: And in Deja Vu, New Orleans is the home of this super-science space-time project.

She: That's when I really started getting interested in Deja Vu, when they started explaining the science they were doing.

Me: Thats what Christopher said, too, that he began to like Deja Vu once they started getting into the science and the theory behind it.

She: You didn't mind the opening: you knew the science part was coming.

Me: No. I didn't know that much about the movie--I try not to see trailers--so I didn't know about the physics element. And the reason I like the opening of Deja Vu is because it is like a Jenga tower being constructed before our eyes, one piece after another. And you can see where the wobbly pieces are going in--you can feel the catastrophe building if you watch those pieces being laid one on the other, oh, so carefully, but with imperfect fit. The tension of Deja Vu is that of knowing the Jenga tower will fall and knowing there will be a head splitting crash and knowing, too, that you have to keep going, that the pieces have to keep going on atop the tower. And afterwards, the tension is in Denzel Washington's character, Doug Carlin, standing in the midst of all those thousands of shattered puzzle pieces blown to bits, looking and looking and looking for a tiny speck that will open the door of the mystery (I quite enjoy mixing my metaphors, by the way).

She: Jenga is one way to look at it. Kevin liked the science parts because he reads physics, same as you.

        Kevin: The science part was real interesting. I read physics so it interests me...Hawkings would be the source of the worm hole theory.

        Codie: Why did you come to see this movie?

        Christopher: He knew about it. I just came along...I didn't see any trailers.

        Kevin: I read something about it...that it involved physics...then I read that it was filmed in New Orleans. It's action packed.... And now we know the reason for all the blackouts.

        Christopher: I'm not sure I'm happy with the ending... (interrupted to avoid Spoilers)

        Codie: It's based on what the scientist explains: that with one event the paths go forward, with another the paths diverge. If they diverge they may coexist as parallel realities or the first path may cease.  (words changed to avoid spoilers)

        Christopher: Oh, that's makes the difference. I didn't catch that. Right.

        Codie: It's all in what the scientist says....

Me: Two things I admire a lot--besides the writing (Bill Marsilii and Terry Rossio)--it is nice to see physics incorporated that way--were the fine points and subtle touches in the directing and how the director handled most of the catastrophe scenes. Like in the scene with the girl's father, there is a close-up of his hands quietly worrying each other--showing such resignation coupled with despair. Or showing a close-up of Denzel Washington's fingertip touching the rim of a glass and moving it a half an inch. And in the catastrophes, in the early one, all we see are grown men being hit hard; and, in a later one, most of what we see is the event as it is reflected off of the witnesses faces. That is a commendable sense of discretion.

She: But, I say again, all those car crashes in Deja Vu make Denzel Washington's character look like a cardboard cut-out.