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"Don't even attempt to understand time travel, it's just not scientifically possible," -- those were the wise words of a friend of mine shortly after completing The Terminator marathon towards the end of our University days. Still, though, having just finished watching Tony Scott's confusing, but wonderfully entertaining, Science-Fiction movie Deja Vu for the first time (literally five mins ago), I am intrigued to piece together all my thoughts concerning what actually just happened. I doubt I'll come to a logical conclusion, but, hey, let's give it a go.

Things begin when agent Doug Carlin (the consistently-brilliant Denzel Washington) arrives on the scene to investigate an exploded ferry boat. The body of victim Claire Kuchever (Paula Patton) is found, but Carlin soon finds out that this woman was actually dead before the blast began, which leaves him rather confused. Then aided by a surveillance team ran by Paul Pryzwarra (a chubby Val Kilmer), he is able to look four days into the past in search of various clues that will hopefully allow him to catch the terrorist responsible for the crime. The problem is actually knowing where to look, as the technology cannot pause or go back once the footage of the past has been rendered.

Deja Vu's premise is fascinating. One of my favourite scenes involved Denzel pursuing the terrorist in a hummer even though he isn't actually physically there: He was chasing the image from four days before via the aid of portable technology. He attempted to keep one eye on the real-time road and one eye on the road from the past via a helmet, frantically dodging cars as he chased his potential suspect -- it really was edge-of-your-seat stuff.

Going beyond simple entertainment, though, Deja Vu's intention is to make the viewer think "is all this actually possible?" when they're in the middle of witnessing its most exhilarating moments. There were certain things that did appear confusing at first to me in this film: A scene where Carlin was studying Claire's apartment onscreen, for instance, and is intrigued by some blood soaked clothes that have scattered around the room. He became seemingly unaware of how they got there, but in a later scene, it is then learnt that Carlin was in fact at the apartment with Claire four days previously, nursing a gun shot wound -- the blood soaked clothes on the floor were in fact his.

Now, if this were true, surely Washington's character would've remembered this? I only raise the point because in The Terminator the John Connor of the future was aware of his "former self" and sent back the T-800 to protect him. I know these are two different films, but the concept is similar, and if Carlin already lived through past events then surely the video footage would've trigger his memory? At this point in watching I began "is Deja Vu's theory plausible?"

Probably not. But of the beauties of the Science-Fiction genre is that we can dream and watch in awe at the same time. I'll admit, I'm still none the wiser in the theory of time travel as I was prior to starting this review, but I suppose it doesn't matter considering that it's still possible to really enjoy Deja Vu. Director Tony Scott's hyperkinetic style means that the film moves at a fast pace and never gets boring; the action pieces are very well choreographed and keep things very appealing throughout; and there's even an interesting subplot concerned with a developing romance between Carlin and Claire, which means you really begin to root for the characters throughout the story.

I've since come to terms with what my friend meant: I don't believe time travel is scientifically possible at this point of time, and I'll probably be better off trying not to understand it. Still, it didn't stop me fantasizing about the whole concept thanks to the stimulative entertainment medium of Tony Scott’s time travel-thriller, Deja Vu. It's a visually fascinating dream, I might say -- one that I definitely recommend to movie lovers to witness first hand.

(C) Andy Carrington, 2008.