Review/opinion

'Reminiscence': A half-baked, forgettable mystery

High-functioning alcoholic Watts (Thandiwe Newton) and her partner Nick Bannister (Hugh Jackman) investigate the disappearance of a client in the sci-fi femme fatale tale “Reminiscence.”
High-functioning alcoholic Watts (Thandiwe Newton) and her partner Nick Bannister (Hugh Jackman) investigate the disappearance of a client in the sci-fi femme fatale tale “Reminiscence.”

Outside of the usual slate of Marvel films, most sci-fi fans are probably waiting for the massive blockbuster remake that is "Dune." To tide them over, some might check out "Reminiscence," lured in by a mysterious trailer about memories and the star power of Hugh Jackman.

But what awaits audiences is a mystery plagued with inconsistencies and unremarkable characters, occupying a world that is in desperate need of building.

Jackman plays a business owner named Nick, operating a machine that allows clients to relive memories as dreams. He's the veteran of some war the movie never shows but keeps talking about, a conflict only hinted at and never fleshed out. That's a constant theme of "Reminiscence," neat concepts that aren't ever fully realized.

As the trailer promised, the film offers plenty of views of flooded Miami in the not-so-distant future where Nick lives and works. He makes a comment or two about the waters rising, and higher temperatures during the day pushing prople to become nocturnal. It's yet another fascinating concept "Reminiscence" isn't dedicated to exploring.

Alongside Jackman is his partner, Watts (Thandiwe Newton), who helps him run the business. She's an alcoholic who apparently also fought in the war that's discussed but never shown. Another character will mention internment camps but give no further details.

One day a woman named Mae (Rebecca Ferguson) walks into the business, wanting to hire Nick and Watts to help her remember where she misplaced her keys. This seems like an awful lot of trouble to go through just to find one's keys.

The concept of a memory machine is interesting and pivotal to the story, but when a third of "Reminiscence" is just people watching memories, this almost becomes a movie about people watching TV.

Nick and Mae fall in love, but she soon vanishes, triggering a desperation in the main hero to find her at all costs. He becomes addicted to his memories of Mae, searching for any last clue he might have missed. The obsession taxes his partnership with Watts and hurts his business, even putting him in harm's way.

The mystery Nick races to solve would have been more interesting to follow if the movie had done a better job of humanizing its characters. Nick doesn't really provide much reason to root for him outside of the script telling him to, which is a shame because Jackman gives his all in the role. He's not the problem.

It's almost as if the movie flipped a switch, and Nick and Mae were automatically in love without any real build-up to that relationship. And since the relationship is hollow, Nick's urge to find Mae isn't all that pressing or interesting. This makes it easy to lose interest in the story.

"Reminiscence" was written and directed by Lisa Joy. It's her directorial debut (though she is co-creator of HBO's "Westworld" series). And it's a shame that she couldn't follow through on all the ideas presented in the film -- or any of them, really.

The film is a sad combination of "Inception" and "Blade Runner," but it lacks the finer parts that made both of those movies good. If "Reminiscence" just would have buckled down and made the world of memories more in-depth and fascinating to witness or dedicated itself to the neo-noir themes of a ruined future, it could have been so much more.

"Reminiscence" also contains an embarrassing number of inconsistencies, the biggest being how the memory technology even works.

In multiple scenes Jackman will watch a memory from someone, and that person will leave the room (in the memory). Logically, the memory should shift and follow along with the memory-holder's perspective wherever they go. But the video continues showing what's happening in the room after the person has already left. It's physically impossible for someone to have a memory of something they didn't witness.

To Joy's credit, the mystery isn't incoherent. And there's an interesting fight scene or two. But it's difficult to enjoy the unraveling of a mystery involving characters the audience isn't given a reason to root for.

The setting is unique, a futuristic and flooded Miami where a few wealthy barons have bought up all the dry land and pushed the water into poor areas would have been great to explore. But "Reminiscence" was more interested in following Nick as he runs from clue to clue across a 116-minute run time. None of the settings was allowed to breathe like the rainy city of future L.A. in "Blade Runner." They don't have time to make an impact. Nothing in this film does.

If only Nick had been given some actual characterization, war flashbacks, relationship buildup, hobbies, habits, anything. It might have been easier to be interested in him.

It's ironic that a movie about memories will end up being so forgettable.

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‘Reminiscence’

80 Cast: Hugh Jackman, Rebecca Ferguson, Thandiwe Newton, Cliff Curtis

Director: Lisa Joy

Rating: PG-13 for strong violence, drug material throughout, sexual content and some strong language.

Running time: 1 hour, 56 minutes

Playing theatrically and on HBO Max

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