We checked out the new sci-fi mystery movie Reminiscence on HBO Max recently. Check out out our review.
Reminiscence stars Hugh Jackman (Wolverine), Rebecca Ferguson (Mission Impossible), and Thandiwe Newton (Westworld) in a movie that manages to be both dystopian future sci-fi and also a throwback noir mystery.
What’s it about?
The setting is a future where climate change has created massive flooding throughout all coastal areas of the world. We see cities now rising out of the sea (Miami being the main location), with people adapting to living in modern cities that now look more like Venice with high-rises partly underwater and boats taking the place of cars.
In this world that has come to terms with a less than rosy future, people seem to be turning to the past as a means of coping. Technology has advanced to produce a machine that can allow people to fully relive moments of their past, as many times as they wish. Jackman’s character (Nick Bannister) is a private investigator and police consultant who uses the machine to search the depths of his clients’ minds and the minds of criminals.
Early on, in true noir private detective story fashion, a woman (Fergusson’s character, Mae) walks into Nick’s office to relive a memory. He falls for her and eventually becomes obsessed. They seem to have a relationship and then we learn she has simply disappeared. Nick can’t accept her leaving without so much as a goodbye and begins searching his own memories of her to find clues.
Much of the film is given to us in flashbacks when Nick is in the machine reliving his memories with Mae. She appears in the memories of a crooked cop that he is hired to interrogate. Nick hijacks the interrogation to follow leads on Mae. The setup with Mae happens seemingly quickly, but also takes the first 45 minutes of the film.
Nick is taken down the predictably winding path of going deeper into the mystery, interacting with various criminals and kingpins as he tries to find Mae, who is more than she seems. I’ll leave it at that so as not to include too many spoilers.
What’s with the story structure?
It’s odd. The bouncing backward and forward in time can be a bit disconcerting. Time is certainly a major aspect of the film, the pacing is slow, but other things seem to happen quickly, leaving the audience to catch up to what is happening. Characters also make some odd choices.
Watch it or not?
There’s an interesting movie in Reminiscence, but it’s hard to discern amidst the meandering story. The atmosphere and cinematography are intriguing. The cast is filled with talented actors. But, it doesn’t quite come together for me.
