Reminiscence is one of those movies where it is lesser than the sum of its parts. Despite sporting an intriguing premise and an A-list cast, as well as being written and directed by Lisa Joy (co-creator of Westworld), the film falters in telling an engaging story.
In the undisclosed future, Nick Bannister (Hugh Jackman), a war veteran, is running a memory clinic where people come to relive their fondest memories or to find something they may have originally overlooked. In this future, sea levels have risen sharply, flooding the lower levels of Miami, and people have found refuge in the past.
Nick’s life changes when Mae (Rebecca Ferguson), a sultry jazz singer, walks in wearing an alluring red dress, trying to find her keys. Soon Nick has a passionate affair with her until she disappears one day without any notice. Nick relives his memories with her again and again until she discovers her while assisting the police with extracting important information from a dying criminal’s mind. Nick follows Mae’s trail down the rabbit hole, trying to find out what her motives were and what kind of person she really was.
The sci-fi setting of Reminiscence is intriguing and visually pleasing, but it’s the kind of setting that falls apart if you think about it for a minute. If the sea levels have risen so much as to submerge around 30–50 stories of skyscrapers, how is the city still functioning? Electricity, plumbing- everything seems to be still working fine.
The logic and rules of revisiting memories also has to be hand waved away. It is similar to how Cyberpunk 2077 did it last year, with the possibility of exploring images and sounds that the person may have originally ignored despite picking it up through his/her five senses.
The main cast all turn in effective performances, but the script fails to use them well. The main thrust of the story is Nick loved a woman whom he knew almost nothing about, and then as he slowly discovers the truth, his belief in her is shaken until it’s finally restored by the end. It’s a classic noir archetype.
However, instead of focusing on this dynamic and building up Nick and Mae’s romance so that the audience is also invested in Nick’s journey, Reminiscence puts an uneven focus on the investigation. For instance, Nick’s relationship with his business partner, Watts (Thandiwe Newton) is a focal point of the story, but it distracts from the core plot. The film feels like a jigsaw puzzle that has been assembled incorrectly.
There are unnecessary detours that are only there for action scenes, and the film suffers for it. It wants to be something like Chinatown, but unfortunately it doesn’t have the gumption for it. The end of the film is emotional and poignant, but unfortunately it’s not well supported by what came before it.
Reminiscence is an interesting failure. It fails in ways that are baffling, because other movies like Inception and Gattaca have already succeeded with those specific elements.
Westworld has always had a problem making its story feel ‘alive’ despite the presence of complex characters with good development. Reminiscence suffers from the same flaw. Hopefully, Lisa Joy will improve upon her first effort and make better choices with her next film project.