You see a movie with the title Reminiscence and it’s hard for anyone to not have their interest a little bit peaked. Add that with the star power of Hugh Jackman and having the film set in a dystopian future where Earth looks like it’s on the brink of ceasing to exist sounds like a no brainer. Serving as the co-creator for the hit HBO show Westworld, writer and director Lisa Joy has been wanting to get a go at making her directorial debut with this film, despite only directing one episode of Westworld, but she’s mainly noted for writing a good portion of episodes from the show. And it’s not a surprise to anyone when a creator from a show wants to make to the big leagues when making their first feature length movie. We’ve seen it happen successfully with Jorden Peele with Get Out and Us, and we’ve even seen directors from movies transfer over to TV. Neil Marshall (director of The Descent) directed two of the best, arguably, episodes of Game of Thrones with Blackwater and The Watchers on the Wall. All in all, it’s something we’ve seen over the last several years and it’s a trend that spreads much more good will than some might think. Unfortunately, Reminiscence isn’t the strongest effort from Lisa Joy. While often at times it’s a but sulky, heavy on exposition and very derivative, Reminiscence is a unique, striking and engaging erotic film noir that doesn’t necessarily blend the famous sci-fi tropes that magnificently (films like Inception and even Blade Runner), however it’s sleek visual style and the performances from Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Ferguson are good enough to chuck along the journey.
Set in the future in the city of Miami, Nick Bannister (Hugh Jackman) works as a private investigator for the mind by allowing people to relive distant memories in order to get closure and to reminisce (no pun) those times all over again. His life and his occupation starts to shift dramatically when a mysterious patient stumbles in his office which then leads to him on a path on uncovering a violent conspiracy on one of his missing patients.
There’s a lot to appreciate in Reminiscence and maybe the aspect that everyone would agree is the great performance that Hugh Jackman gives in this movie. Let’s face it, if Hugh Jackman is the lead in a movie, it’s already got many people’s attention. He dominated and changed people’s perception as the character of Wolverine/Logan for nearly 20 years, but outside of that, Hugh Jackman has displayed some incredible range with some gripping powerful performances in films like Les Miserables, Prisoners or The Prestige. No matter what role or movie, Hugh Jackman will always control the scene with his draw, charisma and serious talents. His performance as private investigator Nick Bannister is another solid performance that he can carry with him. He shows the most grit, emotion and attentiveness to his character than most of the other actors (excluding Rebecca Ferguson), and he’s really the best part of the whole movie. Rebecca Ferguson is also really great in the movie, as a counter part to Hugh Jackman. What’s great about these two is that there was a spark of chemistry between them in The Greatest Showman, but in Reminiscence, they have the similar chemistry that Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone have had in the movies they were in. Jackman and Ferguson have s beautiful and very strong sexual set of chemistry in Reminiscence and their relationship gives this movie more depth and more investment.
The other aspect in Reminiscence that works are it’s visual aesthetics and choices. Cinematographer Paul Cameron (Collateral, Déjà Vu and Man on Fire) really puts together some incredible and eye gazing shots that are visually reminiscent (again, no pun) to films like Blade Runner or even Minority Report. Unfortunately, the downside with these shots is that they don’t really have much of a punch and they almost feel empty and hollow. Beautifully shot and great to look at, but that’s about it. Lisa Joy, as a director, commands the visuals and the world-building very well, and she even has an amazing and wonderfully constructed action scene that features a mixture of little cuts and wide ridge, which then leads to the films biggest problems.
Every movie should be looked at through it’s own scope and judged fairly. Reminiscence, however, ultimately doesn’t feel like it’s own movie due to how much it cribs from other science fiction narratives. It offers a neat visual style and concept well, but the execution of almost every piece of information is hinging off of something that you’ve seen before, which makes this movie feel a lot more valueless. That’s not to say this is a dreadful movie, however, the tropes and story points felt oddly too familiar from recent science fiction movies.
Reminiscence is not the worst science fiction movie ever made because it does have a fair level of ambition to it and it does have some solid things going for it. The performances, the visuals and even Ramin Djawadi’s pulsing music really elevate the movie from being an absolute dumpster fire. If Lisa Joy wants to direct another movie, we should fully support that. That said, we needs to take some serious notes for the future.
My grade for Reminiscence: C+
Zane's take at the Cinema's 