Premise: In a SciFi future, a man who controls a machine that lets him see people's memories tries to track down a woman he fell in love with who disappears.
It's hard to argue with what every critic is saying about this movie. Good luck watching this movie and not thinking about the movies it reminds you of. It's got some Blade Runner in it. Inception, Vanilla Sky, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Minority Report, Waterworld, Chinatown, and virtually any filmnoir. Director Lisa Joy is unsurprisingly a showrunner on Westworld. I'd love to view this movie on its own terms, but I can't do it. It's not a sin either to use other films for inspiration. Everything is a little derivative. That's exactly the point I make with the Formulas at the beginning of my Movie Reactions. However, Reminiscence is in that subcategory of derivative where I just want to watch another movie the whole time.
The idea for the movie is ambitious and intriguing. Filmnoir applied to any other genre is fun to watch. Actually, being able to relive memories is a frightening future that feels more inevitable than fanciful. Using those memories as clues is a nice twist.
Where the movie loses me is the romance. For this movie to work, I have to believe in Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Ferguson's relationship. The flashbacks must justify the obsession. Yes, Ferguson is stunning but she's an enigma the whole time. Then it throws in the wrench that much of their attraction was a ruse put on by her. So, I'm left questioning how many of the memories which were already only mildly effective were even real for her.
Unsurprisingly for someone involved with Westworld, the whole thing gets pretty convoluted. Ferguson is involved in a whole criminal underworld. There are crooked cops, mistresses, inherited fortunes, and the entire societal structure at stake. In addition to being a highly skilled technician of this memory machine, Hugh Jackman and his partner, Thandie Newton, are badass soldiers. I get how this can be sold at the pitch level. It's got romance, action, and mystery with attractive stars. It's from a co-creator of a successful HBO series that regularly juggles dense topics (not well, in my opinion, but whatever). It just doesn't succeed at enough of the things it promises.
Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend
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