Lots of Synchronicity, Romance, And Challenges To The Status Quo
Added 9/23/2008
(Note: This review was written by my wife, Laura...)
You will instantly be drawn into this beautiful film as the lives of two strangers become interwoven in a magical dance of the soul. How does one choose between a stable, comfortable life and another life that is filled with true love but tainted with uncertainty?
This movie seeks to answer this question as these two strangers are ripped between what their mind wants and is conditioned to want by friends, family, and society, and what their soul desires in this rich display of poetic vulnerability and undeniable synchronicities.
As a result, there are some turns in this movie that challenge conventional views about love and marriage. Depending on how strongly you identify with a strict moral code, you may or may not enjoy particular aspects of this movie.
Still, it is both realistic and romantic, dramatic and simple, heart-warming and gut-wrenching. For the hopeful romantics, synchronicity lovers, and plain, old good film enthusiasts, Deja Vu will surely leave you feeling pleased.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Dissapointing!
Added 11/19/2007
I love Stephen Dillane which is why I picked this movie. His performance was very good but the overall movie was weird and jerky. The "no script" thing shows how important a script is. I hope the director bagged that idea after this movie. It is painfully apparent when Stephen Dillanes character runs into Victoria Foyt's character at the house in London, she just keeps saying "what are you doing here?" and Dillane doesn't respond. The bedtime conversations between the old couple that owns the house are just plain weird and completely irrelevant. I agree with the other reviewer that Victoria Foyt's character comes off incredibly whiney! The other story lines - Vanessa Redgraves - would have meaning if they were in turn experiencing some sort of Deja Vu but they don't. I would pass on this movie, this director and certainly Victoria Foyt.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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the lead actress is a holy terror....a test of endurance...
Added 11/18/2007
the concept is lovely...some of the dialogue is actually literate and smart...but the lead actress, as mentioned by so many others, is so unrelentingly whiny and irritating you can barely look at the screen when she is on...i'm watching the vhs version right now as i type and find the movie is more palatable if i can type and watch together to dissipate the really annoying stuff. okay, i'm also watching the clock at the same time because i want to see how it ends but wonder if i can bear the whole thing. my god, what a difference a lead actress with acting ability would have made. the lead actor is so subtle and lovely you can't imagine how he ended up playing against her.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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1998 DEJA VU asks all the puzzling questions in the Universe...haven't we met before?...don't I know you....What do we do???
Added 4/28/2007
Film director Henry Jaglom has been hailed by critics as "the definitive Hollywood filmmaker".Jaglom and his real-life actress/wife ,Victoria Foyt, once again team up to bring a startling and originally scripted and crafted screenplay to the screen.Anyone familiar with the Jaglom/Foyt team (LAST SUMMER IN THE HAMPTONS) will again recognize the earmarks of their work which always tend towards multiple characters intertwined in almost "reality-like" situations and conversations making the viewer one with the characters as an invisible third party to the entire scene-cinema verite at it's best.
This DEJA VU,filmed in 1998,and not to be confused with three other films bearing the same title,is romantic,magical,mysterious and down right philosophical bordering on the existential!The term DEJA VU simply means "the feeling that one has experienced something or someone before exactly as it is being presently experienced".When deja vu is experienced it can startle,baffle and even "creep you out",but the fact that it is a phenonenon that is worldwide is undeniable.
Jaglom and Foyt's tale of "deja vu" takes a far more indepth and more philosophical road than the other films on this phenomenon as it asks the question, "If two people experience the undeniable 'pulling together' that cause them both feel that they are indelibly linked somehow/someway, then do they act upon it in spite of life choices already made?" This deliberately paced,well-acted and very intense dialogue-heavy script is a real find for lovers of the "intimate" film. This is a film,not so much of action, but of words skillfully set and spoken.Victoria Foyt and Stephen Dillane play the "haven't we met before" woman and man,Dana and Sean.The acting is so natural and engaging that the viewer is simply carried along in a very natural drift.The supporting characters played by Vanessa Redgrave,Rachel Kempson (Redgrave's real-life mother),Anna Massey (brilliant!),Noel Harrison and others make for a real two hour treat!.
The music choices of Franz Schubert's SERENADE and the nostalgic WW2 love song WHITE CLIFFS OF DOVER are constantly interlaced throughout this film which was shot in Paris,London,Los Angeles and Jerusalem.
I absolutely refuse to give any plot away,because to do so would destroy the impact and the surprise that each subtle scene contains.(I hope this entices you!)This film will probably not interest people who want "action/entertainment".This is a character study of one of the highest degrees that may well interest patrons of "live" theatre.The film poses alot of questions and asks alot of the viewer to think about the choices that we make,have made or maybe should have made. As a person, myself ,who has experienced and acted upon an undeniable "deja vu" several years back, I can only say that for me it only confirmed the truth of what Jaglom and Foyt postulate...and I am happy..very happy for having made that decision. Perhaps you will too!?
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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What was Dillane thinking when he took this role?
Added 4/20/2007
This viewer came away from this movie with the idea that Victoria Foyt and her husband must have been very generous with the cash to purchase such great actors for such a silly little movie. A check of Victoria Foyt's "acting" credits at IMDb shows that she hasn't been in any "real" movies, only those that she puts on herself. Foyt can't act her way out of a wet paper bag, and repetition and loud lines don't compensate for a lack of talent when supposedly working extemporaneously. I love Dillane's work, and to give him credit, he did his best to stay professional in this odd story. His best scene, though, was the one with the doorway, when he could just act, and not have to (one imagines) suppress winces at how awful it must have been to work with Foyt.
I do like that Vanessa Redgrave and her mother Rachel Kempson together, but they didn't have anything to sink their teeth into. Anna Massey is wonderful wherever she is. But she was wasted here.
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Lots of Synchronicity, Romance, And Challenges To The Status Quo
Added 9/23/2008
(Note: This review was written by my wife, Laura...)
You will instantly be drawn into this beautiful film as the lives of two strangers become interwoven in a magical dance of the soul. How does one choose between a stable, comfortable life and another life that is filled with true love but tainted with uncertainty?
This movie seeks to answer this question as these two strangers are ripped between what their mind wants and is conditioned to want by friends, family, and society, and what their soul desires in this rich display of poetic vulnerability and undeniable synchronicities.
As a result, there are some turns in this movie that challenge conventional views about love and marriage. Depending on how strongly you identify with a strict moral code, you may or may not enjoy particular aspects of this movie.
Still, it is both realistic and romantic, dramatic and simple, heart-warming and gut-wrenching. For the hopeful romantics, synchronicity lovers, and plain, old good film enthusiasts, Deja Vu will surely leave you feeling pleased.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Dissapointing!
Added 11/19/2007
I love Stephen Dillane which is why I picked this movie. His performance was very good but the overall movie was weird and jerky. The "no script" thing shows how important a script is. I hope the director bagged that idea after this movie. It is painfully apparent when Stephen Dillanes character runs into Victoria Foyt's character at the house in London, she just keeps saying "what are you doing here?" and Dillane doesn't respond. The bedtime conversations between the old couple that owns the house are just plain weird and completely irrelevant. I agree with the other reviewer that Victoria Foyt's character comes off incredibly whiney! The other story lines - Vanessa Redgraves - would have meaning if they were in turn experiencing some sort of Deja Vu but they don't. I would pass on this movie, this director and certainly Victoria Foyt.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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the lead actress is a holy terror....a test of endurance...
Added 11/18/2007
the concept is lovely...some of the dialogue is actually literate and smart...but the lead actress, as mentioned by so many others, is so unrelentingly whiny and irritating you can barely look at the screen when she is on...i'm watching the vhs version right now as i type and find the movie is more palatable if i can type and watch together to dissipate the really annoying stuff. okay, i'm also watching the clock at the same time because i want to see how it ends but wonder if i can bear the whole thing. my god, what a difference a lead actress with acting ability would have made. the lead actor is so subtle and lovely you can't imagine how he ended up playing against her.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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