Reminiscence Review Movie
Reminiscence Review
As co-creator of TV series Westworld, Lisa Joy is proficient in creating stunning sci-fi that is twisted, exciting, and high-concept. Reminiscence shares many of the same traits as the show that is equally good as well. It is not without moments of inventive brilliance, as well as many instances of incredibly loose storytelling.
Similar to Westworld, Reminiscence has a stunningly thought-out setting. The story is set in an era in the past and takes place in Miami. Climate change has made the city in a state of total submersion and caused the daytime temperatures to go to such a high that residents have to stay in their homes at night. It's an excellent concept to make the film noir genre. The shadows are everywhere while the town is falling apart. This is the scene for the sin of the world. In this world , lives Nick (Hugh Jackman). Nick operates a business which allows people to revisit happy times, back prior to the chaos of the world. His clients are sedated, take a luxurious bath and Nick whispers softly to them as he views an image of their experiences on a large, expensive projector. If you are able to recall the event, Nick can access it. He is assisted by a friendly old pal, Watts (Thandiwe Newton).
The world seems to has many stories waiting to be explored. There's a lot of potential, but it's not able to meet.
One night, there's Mae (Rebecca Ferguson) A nightclub singer wearing a Jessica Rabbit dress and no background. Nick likes her but she vanishes. Nick decides to discover the truth about what happened to her with just a few old memories to provide clues. It's a trite old noir tale that follows a grizzled man's search for the dame, complete with secrets. And the use of the memory gimmick does not give it a fresh feel. There are more twists to the way to the answer as well as for the concept to be explored further (it can be used as a shortcut interrogation method). The mystery is enhanced by some red herrings to confuse us. Joy offers us only clues to solve the mystery and it's easy to piece the majority of it before she's ready to unravel all.
It could have done better if it had taken it a little less seriously. Much of the dialogue is incredibly overdone and it's unclear what Joy is aware of. The film starts with the line, "The past can haunt the man," that's what they claim. It's a sequence of events, all of them flawless. A chain of the past." Then, you are able to get away with it in the case of an ounce of smile, or a hint that you're enjoying the style however Joy is a serious player. In this context it sounds like writing with tin ears.
There's a lot that's great in this film. The cast is exceptional. Few actors can bring out a powerful angry character like Jackman and Ferguson has such a serious charm that she provides Mae the weight of the idea of a character than and the needed weight. It's like the world has a myriad of stories waiting to be explored. There's a lot of potential, but it's just not connect. If we paid more attention to the plot over the sci-fi bells and whistles , and this could be a thing to be remembered.
