To its credit, Reminiscence is certainly ambitious and visually impressive at times and it’s not dull, but it also lacks a narrative focus to carry it from the beginning to the end.
It stars Hugh Jackman as Nick Bannister, a private investigator living in Miami which is nearly flooded due to war and global warming. Bannister runs an organization that allows people to relive their favorite memories through a process called Reminiscence. Thandiwe Newton costars as his business partner.
A mysterious woman named Mae (Rebecca Ferguson) enters his life and she wants to relive her own particular memory, but it soon becomes obvious to Nick that she’s hiding secrets and he’s determined to seek them out.
At this point, I can’t really go any further with the plot without going into full-blown spoiler territory.
All I will say is that Reminiscence is like a recycled mishmash of leftover parts from other and better sci-fi movies such as Blade Runner, Total Recall, Inception, and even a little bit of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The only difference is, in this one, they surgically removed the intrigue and intelligence.
Reminiscence was written and directed by Lisa Joy of Westworld fame and her vision of this world is filled with some sequences that are impressive like the aforementioned Miami half underwater and it really does look like Miami is underwater.
However, it’s somewhat difficult to care about the plot that surrounds the movie’s fantastical visuals. It would’ve been better without so much double-reverse plotting and a stronger, clearer story.
There’s no denying this film is ambitious, but it’s misguided ambition.
Reminiscence is an intriguing contradiction: Narratively it fails to elicit anything but copycat ideas, but visually, it leaves an indelible impression.
The memory of this movie won’t make me want to reminisce.
Grade: C+
(Rated PG-13 for for strong violence, drug material throughout, sexual content and some strong language.)
