Movie Review of Reminiscence starring Hugh Jackman.
This movie touches justice, vengeance, and redemption. It’s a near-future, dystopian, private detective film set in Miami with some action in New Orleans. The background is, though never stated directly that I heard, global warming has caused the polar ice caps to melt enough that many coastal cities are now partially underwater, as is the case with Miami. Then, there was a war. Again, didn’t hear enough about who the war was between or why. During that war, the government invented a device that can replay a person’s memories. They used it for interrogation. Now, there are private sector individuals that use it to allow people to visit good memories.
Anyway, Nick Bannister (great PI name) played by Hugh Jackman owns one of these machines. He has a business where people pay him to use the machine and relive pleasant memories. He also works with the police as a PI.
The movie looks like it’s attempting to be like Bladerunner. It falls way short. But, considering I believe Bladerunner to be one of the best movies ever made, not surprising. With that said, the movie is interesting. It does achieve the film noir feel. It also achieves the classic private detective ambience. Bannister is a loner. The movie is narrated by him (classic first-person PI). He has a military background. He has a sidekick named Watts, who was a sharpshooter in the military and saw front line action during the war. She is the muscle. There is a great action shooting scene in New Orleans where Watts bails out Bannister.
Mae, a lounge singer with a checkered past, comes into Bannister’s business because she lost her keys and wants to relive the memories of where she placed them. Bannister falls in love with Mae. They have a relationship, but Mae vanishes. The rest of the movie is Bannister trying to find her. He uses his own machine to replay his memories looking for clues, as well as doing the legwork to trace her path. Hence New Orleans scenes.
The movie has a great plot twist. The hope that Bannister holds onto that their relationship was real is what drives him. However, because this is classic film noir, the ending is not a happy ending. Though, that’s open to interpretation. You can decide for yourself if it’s happy. There’s a great line where Mae asks Bannister to tell him a story with a happy ending and Bannister says there are no happy endings. The movie plays this out. Watts gets a happy ending. Redemption is there for her. Justice is served, and vengeance has a price to pay.
The movie is PG-13. Mild profanity. Some on screen sex, though no nudity. The violence isn’t graphic. Like I said, the shootout is a good scene. It starts slow, but then again, film noir is often that way. If you like Hugh Jackman and if you like film noir, then I recommend the film. It’s not Bladerunner, though.
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