Reminiscence is a neo-noir in a sci-fi semi-post apocalyptic setup. The neo-noir classification comes with several sub classifications. Romance, murder, mystery. So we’re in the face of a very rich film. Coming from the brains of a very imaginative creator. This film is the first for its writer and director Lisa Joy who is not a stranger to us. She’s the co-creator of “Westworld” along with her husband Jonathan Nolan, the brother and constant collaborator of Christopher Nolan, who is a producer on this film as well. So, it was fair to expect some Nolanian touches on it and the film indeed has an extent of creativity and smart twists that the audience will be able to enjoy .. if they can make it past the first half.
Hugh Jackman in Trapped into his Own Memories in Reminiscence
Events of “Reminiscence” take place in the near future. Climate change has caused the seas to rise and flood Miami where war veteran “Nick Bannister” lives and runs a small business. Operating a machine that allows people to relive their memories. Until one day he falls for one of his clients, Mae, and when she walks out on him, he becomes trapped in his memories with her. Determined to discover why she left him and where she went. Even if his investigation takes him for confrontations with the ugliest sides of the city.
The first half of “Reminiscence” is slower than me making a review of any film and you just can’t imagine how slow I can be. I’ve seen it myself with my fellow audiences in the cinema. Yawns, eyes growing heavy, hands becoming too weak to hold the bucket of pop-corn. Guys, I know some movies are slow by design, and noir films are usually slow during the build up. However, there’s slow, and there’s too slow .. and there’s too slow it made people in the cinema snore.
I think I understand the reason for this decision about the pace. I think it was a distraction technique. Loads of clues to our mystery are presented in the first half, and by going too slow and too focused on the romance, the film might’ve hoped people won’t pay enough attention. It’s a risky move because I’ve seen people crossing the boundaries of not paying attention into losing total interest. Especially that you didn’t give us anything to actually enjoy meanwhile. What was there to enjoy in the first half is mainly the performance of Rebecca Ferguson and nothing else. In the second half things become different .. relatively. Pace wise we don’t go racing, we are still slow, but at least things are happening and brains are working.
We’re thinking with Nick and trying to beat him to the answer. We got two action sequences that were simply amazing. One of them was visually astonishing. We start perceiving our story in the broader sense. The sense of the community and how it’s shaped in the new cruel world. Our mystery is not so difficult to solve .. wasn’t so hard either. Also, the image of the community was not too deep to perceive .. wasn’t too shallow either. The second half of the film only works as an achievement when we look at our own achievement when we crossed safely into it.
Several creative choices that the film embraced ended up misfiring. Besides using the pace as a distraction technique to serve the mystery element. The first annoying thing that comes to mind during the watching experience is the narration. Again, a tool frequently used in neo-noir movies to upscale tension. Giving the audience a feel of how personal things are becoming for our investigator, and helping the audience realize the emotions overflowing him. In “Reminiscence” I would say the chapters of our story took proper care of that. We know what he found with “Mae” and we know what he’s missing. We know the pain he suffers from and we know how hard his history has been.
All the time we wasted in narration could’ve been put to better use. Like maybe misleading the audience a bit? No element comes on the screen and goes unused. Giving us all the pieces of the puzzle and probably in the exact order they should be used. Can’t say that the narration had an effect on the performance of Hugh Jackman .. Neither negatively nor positively. His character was well designed in all cases and his performance was alright I guess .. Not much of it was memorable. Except maybe for 1 key scene towards the end. Hands down the best scene of the whole film. Where our mystery mostly comes to an end. In a moment of blend between all the elements of the story and cinematic tools being used to achieve maximum emotional effect on the audience .. The ones that remained I mean. The star of the scene, however, is definitely Rebecca Ferguson.
The performance of Rebecca Ferguson is what you’d really walk out of the film remembering. She’s playing the femme fatale, also a common component in neo noir films. All the complications lie in this character and again it was very well designed. She doesn’t have the privilege of narration so we depend fully on her performance to try and read her character, and she totally delivered. Generally speaking Ferguson is the actress that keeps moving forward, even if the film she’s in is dragging everybody else backwards.
“Reminiscence” is an alright film but a challenging viewing experience. It’s not fun for the most part and when it rewards the audience for their patience it doesn’t feel very generous. I guess it’s a positive thing that we have an attempt at bringing neo-noir back and it tries to blend the classic components with more modern themes that should connect easier with the audience .. But I’m sorry to say the whole thing doesn’t really work.