# Déjà Vu (1997)

### reviewed by
James Sanford

Director Henry Jaglom is proof-positive you can sustain a filmmaking career without ever having a hit. How many among us have sat through such Jaglom masterworks as "Venice/Venice," "Eating" or the ever-popular "Babyfever"? Anyone? Anyone? That's because Jaglom is the king of the "talking head" movies, most of which proceed as follows: A group of sophisticates (or pseudo-sophisticates) gather in a house, pour some drinks and exchange story after story about their tragic (or semi-tragic) lives. The actors are encouraged to improvise. The camera drifts slowly from one solemn face to another as the audience either drifts off to sleep or drifts toward the lobby. There's a dose of that in "Deja Vu," Jaglom's latest effort, but this time out he was lucky enough to get Vanessa Redgrave to participate in the discussion. Unsurprisingly, everything she says is well worth listening to, even though her role as an aging jet-setter is peripheral to the main storyline about how American fashion buyer Dana Howard (Victoria Foyt, who co-wrote the screenplay with Jaglom) slowly realizes married British painter Sean Elias (Stephen Dillane of "Welcome To Sarajevo") is her romantic destiny. From their first meeting on the legendary white cliffs of Dover, both Dana and Sean have the unshakable feeling they've met before -- thus, the film's title. But the course of true love never runs smoothly, and it turns out Dana is engaged and Sean already married. Of course, when Sean's wife starts pushing the "let's have a baby" button and Dana's fiance runs her planned "Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers evening" by getting stoned, it becomes rather obvious what's coming next. Though stretches of "Deja Vu" get bogged down in pointless talk, much of it obviously made up as the camera rolled, the movie is otherwise about as close to the mainstream as Jaglom as ever likely to get. There's a neat framing device involving Dana's encounter with a mystery woman, a charming Dillane performance, music by Lena Horne and Vera Lynn, and, of course, the sensational Redgrave, who puts some needed zing into the movie's second half. On the other hand, Foyt's characterization runs hot and cold, to the point where it's tough to tell if Dana is merely wrestling with a divided heart or struggling with undiagnosed manic depression. Take her if you must, Sean, but don't forget to fill that lithium prescription before taking off for paradise. James Sanford

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