Reminiscence (12A)

In near future Miami, extreme weather has left most of the city languishing underwater. On the fringes of this sodden and broken society, private investigator Nick Bannister helps his clients access lost memories with the help of his business partner, Watts. An alluring new customer called Mae approaches Nick to help her resolve a seemingly simple case of lost and found. In the process, Nick develops a dangerous obsession with Mae and he stumbles into a violent conspiracy.

LondonNet Film Review
Reminiscence (15)

Nostalgia never goes out of fashion. Successive generations hanker for the sounds, tastes, fads and aromas of their rose-tinted past with the power to trigger a warming rush of memories and second-hand emotion. Lisa Joy, co-creator of Emmy Award-winning TV series Westworld, focuses on that wistful yearning for simple, bygone pleasures in her stylish yet soporific feature film directorial debut. Set in a dystopian near future, when rising sea waters have widened the gulf between rich and poor and opportunistic property barons buy and lease dry land for shameful profit, Reminiscence contrives a classic gumshoe mystery replete with gnarled private eye and alluring femme fatale…

Joy adorns these genre staples with startling imagery (a grand piano sinking to the floor of a water-filled concert hall through shimmering shafts of sunlight) and a grandiloquent voiceover that makes a bloated two-hour running time feel more like an eternity. “Memories are like perfume. Better in small doses,” swoons Hugh Jackman’s investigator, doomed to endlessly narrate his sorry, sodden existence. An intentionally fractured chronology allows Joy to drip feed kinks in her tangled plot, which establishes rules of cinematic engagement then ignores them, interspersed with physically implausible action sequences that are more Waterworld than Westworld.

On the fringes of a politically volatile Miami, Nick Bannister (Jackman) and fellow combat veteran Emily Sanders aka Watts (Thandiwe Newton) trade in the currency of memories. Using their high-tech neural flotation tank, the duo allow paying customers to reconnect with favourite reminiscences under their close supervision. “Memory is the boat that sails against its current and I’m the oarsman,” opines Nick. Military buddy Falks (Sam Medina), who lost both legs in the line of fire, recalls a time when he could run and play with his dog. Single mother Elsa (Angela Sarafyan) fixates on a lustful afternoon with the man she loved and lost.

Nick and Watts frequently consult with district attorney Avery Castillo (Natalie Martinez), using their technology to corroborate a defendant’s version of events or uncover uncomfortable truths. Nightclub chanteuse Mae (Rebecca Ferguson) approaches Nick and Watts with something far more mundane: to locate a missing set of keys. This chance encounter sparks a dangerous obsession and Nick stumbles into a web of lies spun by a corrupt cop (Cliff Curtis), a sadistic drug lord (Daniel Wu) and a shady property magnate (Brett Cullen).

Reminiscence cheats on more than one occasion, accessing vital information in memories that the person who experienced them couldn’t possibly have seen or known. Jackman and Newton’s feisty onscreen camaraderie burns brighter than the overwrought central love story, which gets bogged down in unnecessary repetition. If Nick is correct and memories are like perfume then Joy’s picture will be remembered as a musty whiff of missed opportunities.

– Sarah Lee