Deja Vu (1997)

I first watched this film about ten years ago and every so often I must watch it again. This is a "Romance" that raises questions about destiny, fate and synchronicity. Henry Jaglom directed and co-wrote the story with Victoria Foyt, who also stars as Dana, an L.A. shopkeeper on vacation in Europe. The movie opens in Jerulsalem, where Dana is buying clothing to ship back to sell in her store. An attractive forty-something woman with poise and style, she plans to meet fiancee, Alex (Michael Brandon), at the home of friends in London.

While relaxing at a countryside cafe, she has a curious encounter with a friendly older woman who tells her a story about a lovely ruby pin given to her by the love of her life many years ago. When the woman leaves Dana with the pin and never returns from the powder room, she delays meeting Alex to attempt to find the woman in Tel Aviv and Paris. Sidetracked on the train to London, she gets off at Dover, the site of the well-known World War II song about the white cliffs. References to the location and song crop up again and again throughout the film, adding to the 1940s romantic flavor of the story.

At the white cliffs she meets an oddly familiar painter named Sean (Stephen Dillane). He mentions "saudade," the Portugese word that describes the love that remains after someone is gone...a nostalgia for a time or place or thing that may never have been or may never be. They visit a cafe for hot chocolate and once again she delays her arrival at the home of Claire and John in London, where Alex awaits her. An eclectic group join together for food, drink, and introspective conversation. We learn that Alex and Dana have purchased an old mansion that once belonged to a Hollywood legend to convert it to a hotel/spa. Skelly (Vanessa Redgrave), John's free-spirited, sixty-something, bohemian sister is full of stories and charm.

Complex relationships unravel and unexpected forces cause Dana to doubt her life choices. Skelly is orchestrating a way to move her elderly mother to live with Claire and John in order to maintain her self-involved livestyle, free from the burden of caring for Mother. Practiced in the art of an unencumbered life, she offers Dana wonderful pearls of wisdom in her moment of confusion.

"The world conspires to prevent us from taking what we have found."

"Illusion is a scent of something real coming close."

The trip is cut short when Dana's father back home is hospitalized. He reveals a long-hidden secret on her wedding day. This is a fun and thought-provoking romantic tale that explores the more troubling aspects of following the heart.