Denzel Washington in a scene from "Deja Vu" from Touchstone Pictures. Washington stars in the crime thriller which debuts in movie theaters on Wednesday hoping to be among the top box office draws over this week's U.S. Thanksgiving Day holiday.. Photo Credit: REUTERS/Handout

By Bob Tourtellotte

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Forget his Oscar, and put aside his box office power. Denzel Washington has one quality that puts him head and shoulders above other Hollywood actors.

"He's got a movie star smile," says producer Jerry Bruckheimer.

Washington stars in crime thriller "Deja Vu," which debuts in movie theatres on Wednesday hoping to be among the top box office draws over this week's U.S. Thanksgiving Day holiday.

In "Deja Vu," the star of films ranging from "Malcolm X" to "Training Day," for which he won 2001's best actor Oscar, plays a federal cop who travels in time to stop a terror attack.

Washington told Reuters the film fascinated him with its use of technology and made him think about high-tech spying in current times.

"It has all of this cutting-edge technology -- and a lot of it is true -- with how far we've gone with surveillance. I mean, if we can Google anybody's house on Earth, ain't no telling what the government can do," Washington told Reuters with a flash of his smile.

Washington portrays Doug Carlin, an agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who is sent to investigate the bombing of a New Orleans ferry.

Once there, he is teamed with a secret government group that uses high-tech surveillance equipment to, in effect, re-create past events and give cops the ability to find criminals before they actually commit a crime.

While viewing the surveillance, Carlin also spies a woman with whom he almost immediately falls in love, and when he uses the machine to travel back in time, audiences learn exactly who she is and why he is smitten with her.

DIVERSE ROLES

"It's weird. It's a love story told backwards," Washington said.

The part of Doug Carlin is not the most challenging dramatic role in which Washington's fans have ever seen the actor or, for that matter, are likely to see him in the future.

But over the years, Washington has remained a Hollywood star precisely because he has taken diverse roles in a wide range of movies.

Movies like "Cry Freedom," "Philadelphia" and "John Q" have tackled subjects such as South African apartheid, AIDS and the U.S. health-care system, respectively.

Others such as "Crimson Tide" and "Inside Man" are straightforward action movies that scored well at box offices with $157 million and $184 million worldwide, respectively.

Bruckheimer, no slouch himself at turning out smash hits like the $1 billion-plus global blockbuster "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," reckons that as much as his smile, Washington's success is due to his intelligence and the fact that he's just plain likable.

Washington chalks up his success to little more than good guidance from adults when he was growing up, his spiritual life, getting an education and working hard.

"I was blessed, he said.

Then, talking about "Deja Vu," he added that he only recently saw it for the first time with all its special effects and time-travel wizardry.

"I was like, 'Man, this is good,' he said, and he reflects for a split-second before his face brightens.

"And I'm in it!" he added, flashing that famous grin.