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Déjà Vu (1985)

Rate: 3
Viewed: 10/21

DejaVu
10/21: It's the structure that kills Déjà Vu.

While I was getting into the flashback segment, it's abruptly switched to the present day. This pattern would be repeated many times throughout, annoying me to no end.

The best advice I can give to the filmmakers is pick one thread and stick with it for the duration. That being said, it'll mean eliminating Shelley Winters as the middleman. By the way, how come her character is nowhere to be found during the flashbacks? I only ask this because how did she, in the present day, know all of this stuff?

The fire makes no sense. What's the point? Why is it so hard to run away from it? What's the mother doing? She killed her daughter in spite of wanting to protect her. Then, Gregory's fiancée, in some reincarnated form of the mother, did it again later. Doesn't everybody think the whole thing could've been avoided if he hadn't pursued the ballerina story in the first place?

Director Nigel Terry does a decent job of keeping me involved, but it's a tall task for him to make the whole thing work. How he ended the film is poor. Jacyln Smith plays two different characters, but I fail to recognize her as the same person. Shelley Winters is okay for the most part but is more camp than not, especially the way she says her lines. Playing a villain perhaps for the first time, Claire Bloom needs Richard Burton to slap her in the face.

All in all, Déjà Vu plays out like a standard telefilm with no style.