Déjà Vu

I normally have a guilty-pleasure soft spot for films by Tony Scott, but there’s no denying that a better film could have been made from Déjà Vu’s raw material. The potential for the concept — an investigation into a terrorist act aided by a device that can see the past — is so rife with complexities that you sort of dream a better movie than the chase-and-shoot thriller that’s offered here. Denzel Washington is his usual stalwart self, but the idea is so full of troubling consequences (such as the illegal surveillance possibilities for such a machine) that it isn’t quite enough.