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Hugh Jackman may have recently brought Wolverine out of retirement with last year’s Deadpool and Wolverinebut when he’s not wearing a yellow suit wrapped around an adamantium-infused skeleton, he’s not too bad in the thriller genre. 2021 Reminiscence is a prime example of Jackman taking the lead outside of Marvel in this existential tech-noir film about an investigator who returns to his painful memories to uncover clues about the disappearance of the love of his life. Although Jackman’s stellar performance is supported by the talents of Thandiwe Newton and Rebecca Ferguson, Reminiscence The build-up doesn’t quite stick, but the build-up and cinematography alone make this film worth seeking out on Max if you’re interested in seeing Jackman play a cynical detective running against the clock.
The reminiscence machine
Reminiscence starts with Nick Bannister (Hugh Jackman) and Emily “Watts” Sanders (Thandiwe Newton) operating out of a repurposed interrogation facility that uses sensory deprivation as a means of allowing its clients to relive memories from their past for a nominal fee. Offering a healthy amount of meta-commentary on how nostalgia sells, Nick’s narration works as a vehicle for expository and personal musings with just a hint of cynicism, as if he were a hard-nosed private eye from a 1930s pulp magazine.
While Nick has recurring clients who want to relive their past instead of living in the present, as well as government contracts to use his reminiscence machine to examine suspect memories for various cases, he’s barely doing enough business to keep the lights on. Bored and simply going through the motions, Nick injects his subjects with a sleeping serum, places them in a tank of water, and guides their meditations with his voice while storing their memories on discs for his records.
Everything changes for Nick when he is about to close up shop for the day and Mae (Rebecca Ferguson) walks in and begs him to let her undergo treatment so she can find her missing keys. Through an uncertain timeline, we learn that Nick and Mae became romantically involved before suddenly disappearing. Distraught and despondent, Nick repeatedly subjects himself to the memory machine in order to find clues that will help him find Mae.
Romance with a touch of crime drama
While Mae’s disappearance is the primary conflict Reminiscenceopens a new investigation involving a drug kingpin named Saint Joe (Daniel Wu), a corrupt cop named Cyrus Booth (Cliff Curtis) and a highly addictive substance known as baca. Nick’s primary goal is to be reunited with Mae through the memory machine, but as he delves deeper into the recesses of his own memories, he finds that Mae’s presence permeates his entire investigation. Unsure whether Mae is leaving clues as a signal for help or sending him on a wild goose chase, Nick slowly unravels as he tries to make sense of his own memories and those of his suspects.
We have a start at home
Channeling some serious Beginning energy, Reminiscence it has all the makings of a technical thriller to think about, but it gets lost in the weeds in the third act. As Nick’s obsession with Mae continues to consume his being, the line between his memories and real life blurs to the point of confusing the narrative. Still, it’s worth noting that the flashback sequences are stunning vignettes that tap into the nostalgia one feels while looking back fondly on better days, even if the good times themselves may have just been a lie we tell ourselves.
Reminiscence was an absolute box office bomb at the time of its release, but it’s a visually stunning film that tries to ask some serious questions about the past, the people we care about, and how our perceptions really depend on our point of view and the mindset of the moment. state. In other words, if you look deep into your past for clues, chances are you’ll find them, whether they’re real or not, because you want to see them so badly.
Reminiscence is currently streaming on Max and is definitely worth a watch if you don’t mind a third-act letdown after a significant amount of existential build-up.
