Per Robert Scucci
| Published
Hugh Jackman may have recently brought Wolverine out of retirement last year Deadpool & Wolverinebut when he’s not wearing a yellow suit wrapped around an adamantium-infused skeleton, he’s not too bad in the thriller genre. in 2021 reminiscence is the best 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 Thandiwa Newton and Rebecca Ferguson, reminiscence it doesn’t hold the landing after the build-up, but the build-up and cinematography alone make this film worth seeking out for Max if you’re interested in seeing Jackman play a cynical detective racing against time.
A reminiscence machine
reminiscence starts with Nick Bannister (Hugh Jackman) and Emily “Watts” Sanders (Thandiwe Newton) operate out of a repurposed testing facility that uses sensory deprivation as a means to allow its clients to relive cherished memories from their past for a nominal fee. Offering a healthy amount of meta-commentary on how nostalgia is sold, Nick’s narratives function as a vehicle for exposition and personal musings with just the hint of cynicism as if he were a hard-boiled private detective from a 1930s pulp magazine.
While Nick has steady 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 questionable memories for various cases, he barely has enough work to keep him fired up. 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 saving their memories onto discs for his records.
Everything changes for Nick when he’s about to close up shop for the day and Mae (Rebecca Ferguson) walks in, begging him to let her go for treatment so she can find her missing keys. Through a shaky timeline, we learn that Nick and Mae became romantic before she suddenly disappeared. Distraught and despondent, Nick repeatedly undergoes the memory machine so that he can find clues that will help him locate Mae.
A romance with an undertone of a crime drama
While Mae’s disappearance is the main conflict in reminiscencea new investigation opens involving a drug kingpin named Saint Joe (Daniel Wu), a corrupt cop named Cyrus Booth (Cliff Curtis), and the highly addictive substance known as baca. Nick’s primary goal is to reunite with Mae through the memory machine, but as he digs deeper into the depths of his own memories, he learns that Mae’s presence is peppering the rest of his investigation. Not knowing whether Mae is leaving clues as a sign for help or sending him on a wild chase, Nick slowly unravels as he tries to make sense of his own memories and those of his suspects.
We have Inception at home
Channeling some serious Beginning energy, reminiscence it has all the elements of a provocative technological thriller, but 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 becomes blurred to the point of confusing the narrative. Still, it’s worth mentioning that the flashback sequences are captivating vignettes that tap into the nostalgia one feels when looking back fondly on better days, even if the good times may have just been a lie we’re telling ourselves.
reminiscence was a total bomb at the box office at the time of its release, but it’s a visually stunning film that tries to ask serious questions about the past, the people we care about, and how our perception actually depends on our point of view and current mental 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 worth a watch if you’re okay with third-act disappointment after a significant amount of existential build-up.