Reminiscence

Once in a while, Hollywood throws us films that have that fantastical, somewhat cerebral and obscure effect to them, i.e. "The Fountain", "Inception", "Interstellar", even "2001: A Space Odyssey" to mention a handful. The premise is typically intriguing and interesting, but sometimes it's difficult to wade through the different tributaries as the story unfolds. This is somewhat the case for "Reminiscence" in that it's a very intriguing plot, however with a few parts that, unless one is paying extreme attention, can be difficult to follow.

Nick Bannister (Hugh Jackman), a private investigator of the mind, navigates the darkly alluring world of the past with his business partner, Emily 'Watts' Sanders (Thandie Newton), by helping their clients access lost memories. Living on the fringes of the sunken Miami coast, his life is forever changed when he takes on a new client, Mae (Rebecca Ferguson). A simple matter of lost and found becomes a dangerous obsession. As Bannister fights to find the truth about Mae's disappearance, he uncovers a violent conspiracy, and must ultimately answer the question: how far would you go to hold on to the ones you love? With his mind-probing machine, he starts to bite off more than he can chew in that, to find Mae, certain ugly things must be uprooted in order to be able to locate her. It comes down to the old adage, "watch out what you ask for, because you might just get it".

Others to round out the cast are Cliff Curtis as Cyrus Boothe, Daniel Wu as Saint Joe, Mojean Aria as Sebastian Sylvan, Walter's son, Marina de Tavira as Swati, Brett Cullen as Walter Sylvan, Natalie Martinez as Avery Castillo,  Angela Sarafyan as Elsa Carine, Javier Molina as Hank and Sam Medina as Falks. 

This was directed by virtual newcomer to the directing chair, Lisa Joy (TV). Considering she has only one episode of a TV show to her directing resume, this was amazingly helmed well. She has natural talent, so one can see her going places in this field. I'm not sure how she obtained this gig, but suffice it to say, she really pulled it off. Jackman and Ferguson simply shined in this with all the emotions that they had to emit, and this is talented directing. It was also written by Joy (TV), and with the limiting directing experience she has, she has not much more writing experience. Again, she has TV writing experience, albeit, not a plethora, but more, so this was quite the challenge for her. I'm telling you, this would be a challenge for a seasoned writer. But even with this being the case, she was actually able to pull off this premise. Mind you, were there flaws? Absolutely, such as it was never explained of how the Miami area succame to being flooded as a permanent occurrence, and there were a couple of places where it became inconsistent and choppy, such as where reality ended and the visual past came forth. There's a lot going on with the story and although this typically isn't a problem, with this particular plot, the story could have been weaved with a bit less going on. Otherwise, as the story was unfolding, one could see how things were starting to fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. Again, a very intriguing premise to a very fresh and original story. Considering, kudos to this writer. She will undoubtedly receive more theatrical work. 

If the obscure, odd and somewhat cerebral suits your fancy, you'll probably like this, or certainly find it utterly intriguing. If you want to see this on an even larger screen, it's also shown on an IMAX format as well. 

Out of 4 Stars: 3                                           Rated: PG-13                                             116mins.