“Reminiscence” (theaters and HBO Max) imagines a future where the coasts are being drowned by rising sea levels. It’s supposed to be foreboding, but it’s actually rather beautiful. Miami becomes like a larger Venice, with taxi boats ferrying passengers between skyscrapers.
Wonderful world-building
It’s a feat of seamless-CGI moviemaking, as is the 3D hologram stage that projects people’s memories at the shop run by Hugh Jackman’s Nick Bannister and assistant Watts (Thandie Newton). Nick walks upon the stage and brushes aside gossamer strands to get closer to details.
Usually he’s drawn to Rebecca Ferguson’s Mae, who initially comes in for a quick session: She needs to find her misplaced keys.
“Reminiscence” (2021)
Director: Lisa Joy
Writer: Lisa Joy
Stars: Hugh Jackman, Rebecca Ferguson, Thandie Newton
Written and directed by “Westworld” E.P. Lisa Joy, “Reminiscence” is a triumph of artistic design, with Jackman and Ferguson among the pretty things to look at.
This film includes that classic overused line, here from Watts to her boss: “You look like sh**.” But of course Jackman never does, nor does Ferguson, of the recent “Mission: Impossibles.”
Watts suspects Nick is drawn by Mae’s tight dresses. But Joy lets Nick (and us) pretend higher-class aesthetics: Maybe we’re drawn by Mae’s lounge singing, where she’s great but the bar-goers don’t care.
The future Miami, the memory-restoration business and the two leads – with Jackman doing old-fashioned voiceovers that make me want to rewatch “The Prestige” – make up the bittersweet prettiness of “Reminiscence.”
Neither here noir there
Joy obviously wants this to be an artistic meditation on memory. But then there’s the actual plot, which is strikingly standard in contrast to the stated ambitions. If the plot seems familiar, it’s not because you’re plugged into Nick’s machine; it’s because you’ve seen movies before.
From the “strange decision” column, “Reminiscence” almost skips over the Nick-Mae romance. It jumps ahead to when Mae has vanished and Nick is himself plugging into the memory machine, searching his own brain for clues.
I wonder if there was a half-hour-longer cut of the film, but then the romance got excised. It’s a somewhat understandable decision, as even in its 116-minute form, the film lags after a strong start. Then it picks up at the end when the answers arrive.
In between, it digs a deep hole that’s nonetheless shallow in terms of originality. Mae slots into the femme fatale spot like Nick slots into the noir detective position.
Actually, a nice place to visit
Things play out in uneven fashion. Saint Jo (Daniel Wu) feels like he comes over from a “John Wick” flick, then Cliff Curtis comes in as focal villain Cyrus Boothe. (As if anyone named Cyrus Boothe wouldn’t be a villain.)
Fight scenes and shootouts seem extraneous, like an apology to viewers who thought this was a Jackman actioner.
The plot never matches the striking imagery. An earring that might be a clue takes a backseat to where it’s found: amid the “spillover” zone where Nick’s operation is based. The business is literally barely staying above water.
A nod should go to the world-building, though. “Westworld” has built an incredible SF future in three seasons, but sometimes it feels drawn-out. The fact that “Reminiscence” creates an equally fascinating future in less than 2 hours confirms my suspicion that “Westworld” is padded.
Smooth exposition helps piece things together, but mainly it’s the visuals of Miami being claimed by the sea. “Reminiscence” treats it as a given that people will want to escape from this dystopia into their memories. But as far as bleak futures go, I think this is a rather gorgeous one.