An Alternate Reality: I saw Reminiscence...

Reminscence is a new dystopian movie, written and directed by Lisa (Westworld) Joy, starring superstar-for-good-reason Hugh (Wolverine) Jackman. It paints a soggy future (during the time of a nondescript war), where a Miami private eye uses (as a profitable sideline) an opiate-technology that lets folks relive parts of their past (mainly brighter days in light of the darker ones that have come to be). In actuality, Reminiscence is a somber variant of Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy, which borrows from Kathryn Bigelow's Strange Days, Douglas Trumbell's Brainstorm and the "memory" prose of Philip K. Dick to noir-esque, alternate-reality effect. 

For people to tap into the coveted past, Jackman's Nick Bannister straps his clients into his memory machinery (a brow brace and a quasi-isolation tank) and along the investigative trail, meets Mae, played by Rebecca Ferguson (Jackman's Greatest Showman costar). Mae's  long-legged allure and classic-movie mystique make Bannister fall in love with her, but alas, Mae vanishes one day without a trace, and Bannister's obsession with the knockout inspires him to comb their stockpiled memories to find her. (This goes against the advice of Bannister's caring assistant, Watts {Thandiwe Newton}, as Mae's path points to a criminal mastermind, Saint Joe {Daniel Wu} and a strong-arming fixer, Cyrus Booth {Cliff Curtis}, who are tied to estranged elitists.) 

The story's execution tugs at the heartstrings with all the lost-love pangs one might expect (and Ramin Djawadi's pulsating score propels its pathos, along with that old, Richard Rogers standby, "Where and When"), all contained within a beguiling and sprawling adventure. But this adventure isn't Homer's Odyssey, but rather a much more intimate voyage in line with Richard Matheson's Somewhere in Time, Nicholas Meyer's Time After Time and Rod Serling's Twilight Zone tale, "the Long Morrow". In this regard, Bannister's intent is as significant as if he were searching for a mountainous treasure in some far-away land, and his lady fair proves as difficult to grasp, since the path to regain her spirals into addiction. 

One could argue that Bannister's quest essays the ups and downs of nostalgia: its sweetness and woe. It explores why one would wish to reattach to a person, place or time, when improving the status quo (improving the moment at hand) would be more feasible and immediate. But then those who'd look to the present and/or future for an antidote to their emptiness aren't as prone to understand love. (The past, after all, is much easier to romanticize, no matter the flaws attached.) 

 

This philosophical, if not psychological, perspective gives Reminiscence its draw, but alas, the story is marred by an unneeded, climate-change motif. Its allegorical, water-has-risen garnishing may look nice and shimmering, but its controversial, we-told-ya-so redundancy taints the story's pathos, which should (could) have stood on its own.  

Despite this unfortunate chink, Reminiscence is a haunting experiment that challenges both body and soul: a human-condition, science-fiction product that works in direct defiance to the noisy splash that populates most high-profile, speculative filmmaking today. For those who like their escapism somber and deep, Reminiscence is without question one to seek.