First Take: Reminiscence - a poor man’s Memento

SYNOPSIS: Nick Bannister, a private investigator of the mind, navigates the alluring world of the past when his life is changed by new client Mae. A simple case becomes an obsession after she disappears and he fights to learn the truth about her.

Having opened in cinemas last week, there has been a distinct lack of high concept sci-fi since before the restart *last year*- and now we have a film which attempts to satisfy that strand of cinemagoer. Sadly Reminiscence falls incredibly short of what the trailers made it out to be.

Co-creator of HBO’s Westworld, Lisa Joy makes her feature directorial debut, as well as writing the film, and having now seen this 1 hour 56 minute movie, I can see why people are having issues with it - some aspects of the plot work well in feature form, but others suit the more episodic nature of a limited TV series, and while Joy’s script isn’t at fault, it feels like this was merely a contractual obligation to get Westworld back on air. It’s shot very well by Paul Cameron, and Ramin Djwadi’s score is a Ronseal job - it does what it says on the tin.

Performance wise, Hugh Jackman and Thandiwe Newton continue to do what they do best, Rebecca Ferguson is used relatively well, but the writing lets her character down a bit, and the supporting cast is filled out by Cliff Curtis, Daniel Wu and Marina de Tavira, but sadly the main issue of the film is the 12a certificate. There are moments which push the film in to 15 territory, and I am genuinely surprised that the BBFC allowed this through based on the general tone of the film.

THE VERDICT

Reminiscence has a lot of untapped potential with a plot like that, but the general consensus amongst the internal TheJackSmit team is that it would have worked better as an episodic TV series - it’s what Lisa Joy is known for after all.

RATING: 3/5