Science fiction is a rather malleable genre, one that can be used to fit any given story. It is, first and foremost, seeing how technology affects us as humans. This can be about said future leaps forward changing ourselves in a singular sense or how we interact with each other. One particular style of film has cropped up again and again: the future film noir. That was typified back in 1982(my birth year) with “Blade Runner,” the quintessential sci-fi noir. Many films have tried to evoke its singular brand of gumshoe voice-over and heady visual spectacle. The latest of which just dropped in theaters and HBO Max.
“Reminiscence” comes to us from the mind behind the television series “Westworld.” Writer/director Lisa Joy flexes her chops in a feature debut. Hugh Jackman plays Nick Bannister, a Dashiell Hamment name if ever I heard one. A veteran of some unspecified war, he now uses a machine to let people experience being in the past. One that also allows him to watch these play out. All this makes for an intriguing premise. He works with a fellow vet played by Thandiwe Newton. One evening, a tall blonde bombshell in a slinky red dress comes in just as Nick is about to close up shop. In an instant, fireworks ignite between them, love at first sight. Infatuation begins on the part of Nick.
From there we are treated to old clichés you find in detective fiction. The lady works as a nightclub singer who suddenly disappears, leaving our hero heartbroken and searching for answers. Drug kingpins and dirty politicians litter this version of Miami. This is “The Maltese Falcon,” “Chinatown,” the Harrison Ford film mentioned in the intro to this article. Although everything is done very mid-tier and dispassionate.
It is clear that Joy began in television. All of the set pieces feel like they were lifted from a basic cable show of the late 2000s. Much of this is like her work on “Westworld.” Hollywood doesn’t do this kind of movie much anymore, the middle-budget flick. They were common in the 1990s, even in this genre. Although films like “Gatacca” and “Dark City” utilized this to greater effect. In fact, the later has the same 50s mystery thriller feel, complete with a lounge singing seductress and a protagonist with a shaky past.
Where the director loses me is her use of a high-tech remembering device as a lazy shorthand to introduce flashbacks. In one scene we are seeing a memory from a guy who has snatched our damsel. The problem is we are seeing it from a third-person perspective, not from his eyes. This is done much better in Kathryn Bigelow’s “Strange Days.” In that film, the headgear projects the first-person account of a memory. This has no continuity error; no shift in perspective that seems incongruous to whom this is from. Joy, however, just likes to use her imaginary recall mechanism to do whatever she feels. Physical reality, be damned.
Now do I regret watching this? The answer would be a no for me. There are some interesting ideas afloat, like that climate change has shifted Florida’s coast into Venice-like waterways. The sight of a high-speed monorail train, flying over flooded regions was rather cool to see. I only wish it was in a more unique creation. A savvier watcher will catch on to all the references, one that even the script thinks is deep. But after being told to remember Orpheus and Eurydice more than once means someone doesn’t trust their audience. All the same, happy viewing readers.
