Deja Vu

As long as you’re not going to poop all over the party with your degree in quantum physics, Déjà vu is one of the better suspend-your-disbelief-over-the-premise thriller/mysteries to come from the majors in awhile. Director Tony Scott (Man on Fire) is at his visceral best in the opening scene, exploding a riverboat full of hundreds of sailors, grade schoolers and Mardi Gras partiers in the middle of post-Katrina New Orleans. A hot-shot ATF agent (Denzel Washington) is immediately on the scene and soon is teamed up with a secret government organization. This crew of smarties (including Val Kilmer and Adam Goldberg) has made a time machine of sorts (discovered by accident, supposedly—remember, disbelief is still suspended) and can push play (but not stop or rewind) on the past as it happened four days ago, and they need Mr. ATF to watch along and help catch the riverboat bomber in the act. Of course, as with any mystery (especially one involving time travel) things aren’t exactly as they seem. Breadcrumbs are dropped and a love interest is introduced (Paula Patton), but thankfully, due to Washington’s chops and the shifting parrallel realities, plenty of options are left open all the way to the refreshingly subtle ending.