As much as I love going to the movies, with everything that’s going on in the world, it’s actually really nice to have a home viewing option. Visually captivating, wildly imaginative, and anchored in the footsteps of films that have come before, Reminiscence showcases all the potential of an ambitious young filmmaker.
While the poster definitely gives off Blade Runner-meets-Miami Vice kinda vibes, the first look at the trailer suggested more of Inception energy set in a Waterworld prequel. While all of that is partially accurate, to some extent, the movie is more of a spiritual successor to Alex Proyas’ Dark City (1998) which is up there as one of my all-time personal favorites.
Set in the rapidly flooding Miami area, Nick Bannister (Hugh Jackman) is in the business of selling nostalgia via a high-tech memory chamber in which he helps guide clients to specific memories. Business isn’t exactly booming and when one woman walks through the door, it leads him down a dark and mysterious rabbit hole.
High-profile science fiction offerings always tend to stir my imagination and this was one of my most anticipated films of the year, for that reason. I have talked about managing expectations but it’s often hard to follow your own advice sometimes and maybe I set the bar too high with this one. Don’t get me wrong, I liked it, but it was a little too PG-13 for my liking. Sure, there was action and death and passion but a lot of it went through all the predictable paces and pulled its biggest punches.
There’s a particular type of scene that has been recycled in many films in which an airplane, helicopter, or spaceship is having engine trouble during a crucial moment during the heroes’ escape, usually as they’re heading towards a cliff. The vehicle falls off the edge and plummets towards the ground and imminent death, leaving the frame briefly before triumphantly pulling up at the last moment and riding off to safety. This sequence is used over and over again as an attempt to create suspense when we already know the heroes aren’t going to die in a fiery plane crash halfway through the film. Plenty of movies I like have that scene, but I think it’s a good metaphor here.
Hugh Jackman is always good and his character’s obsessive self-destructiveness was reminiscent (see what I did there) of the magician, Robert Angier, he played in The Prestige. He has great intensity but also is very genuine in his passion and that comes across well here. Jackman is once again paired with Rebecca Ferguson who has been on a tear since breaking out in Mission Impossible – Rogue Nation. Strangely enough, the setup for their relationship in this film is almost identical to the one they had in The Greatest Showman, all the way down to Jackman falling in love watching her sing for the first time. They are both good performers. That’s on display here but their chemistry isn’t where I’d expect it to be and it’s a bit co-opted from a previous project.
It was actually Thandiwe Newton’s character, Watts, who was the most compelling for me, and maybe that comes from her previous relationship working with Lisa Joy on Westworld. She brought more out of her role as the third wheel than we got out of the leads. I could envision a prequel story here for her character that dives deeper into her alcoholism, the estrangement from her daughter, her time in the military. All that seems like a great foundation.
Joy and the production designer, Howard Cummings, put a distinct and glistening stamp on this film. Half-sunken Miami is very ethereal and the Reminiscence machine itself not only looks great on film but was actually a working hologram for production. There were some after-effects added in post-production and, in some ways, it detracted to the great practical work of the effects team but I understand it had to look a certain way on screen. Either way, that kind of vision will serve Joy and her collaborators well down the road.
All told, I enjoyed the movie. It’s visually and conceptually robust and the cast is strong. It could be my own expectations getting in the way, but this felt like an R-rated idea that was packaged as a PG-13 option. This one definitely has an older adult audience in mind and probably should have just leaned into that more, but the current theatrical situation is messy so I could understand if the studio wanted to try and broaden the appeal.
Recommendation: If you like visual design and high-concept science fiction, you’ll likely enjoy this one.
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