"Reminiscence" on HBO (and in theaters)
It's not an action thriller. It's film noir you should watch at 1am.
It wasn’t 1 am when I watched it, but I can totally see myself being engrossed in this confused, slow, captivating, non-action, barely-thriller for its’ entire 2 (why?!?) hours at 1 am when I should be sleeping.
Yes, I know that’s not exactly an endorsement. But bear with me. It’s actually not half-bad.
The movie has a dream-like quality, and being all about memory it’s fairly on-point with floaty pacing and hypnotic symbolism. You know how you remember things in flashes? You don’t remember the entire scene like it’s a video, you remember that one thing from the scene, and everything sorta constructs itself around it and then comes unspooling from that one anchor point - this movie has that sense. The Queen of Hearts; the dame in the red dress; the singing; the blue dress; the light, the dark, the water, yada yada, etc, etc.
I’m of two minds on the title. On the one hand, the word itself - “reminiscence” - connotes a sort of light-hearted reverie, and that rhymes with the skipping-stone style of the movie. And on the other hand, it really doesn’t come close to touching the subject matter that includes a post-apocalyptic Miami, a generation scarred by war and abandonment, hardship, corruption, unrest, murder, and love. I guess “Total Recall” was already taken, as was “Memento.” “Reminiscence” it is; style over substance.
HBO described it as an action-thriller, which is a major disservice to the movie. It should have been billed as film noir, a 40s-style gangster romance, and shot in black and white. If you approach it from that angle, it’s a lovely tragic love story with as happy an ending as a sappy audience could wish for from a film noir.
If you keep waiting for the “action-thriller”, you’ll quit third of the way, bored and disappointed, and leave a poor review.
All the elements are there: the tragic love interest with a sultry voice and a dark past; the tired hero ready for love; the disillusioned friend lost in the past; the evil gangster or two, muddying up the waters and creating conflict; the moodiest scenery for the backdrop; even a grand piano with a small role to play.
The blending of those elements sorta works to make something decent. If you can squint at your memories and add just a little memory fog, you’ll remember this movie fondly. Reminisce, if you will.
By the way, Rebecca Ferguson was perfect as the tragic femme fatale; she made me think of Michelle Pfeiffer, who totally would have played this role 30 years earlier.
If there’s ever a director’s cut, here’s my wish list:
Cut the first 40 minutes to 15.
Make it black and white
Fix the fights
About that last point: there’s only two fights - well, only one that really counts, and please, put a little more thought into it for the reshoot!
They teased Nick’s (Hugh Jackman) fighting skill in one scene where he deftly diffuses a potentially lethal situation, and then when it actually counts he’s swinging haymakers like he’s a drunk nobody in a bar fight.
Later on he’s got a hammer in a knife fight, and it’s not worth the rubber it’s made of. Have you seen the OG Oldboy (not the Brolin one; idk if there’s a hammer in that one)?!? Come on, a hammer is not a joke in a fight!
Incidentally, “Blade Runner 2049” colors on the cover are an interesting choice. There’s no synthetics in this one (I hope it’s not a spoiler). Yes, it’s futuristic in the sense of being set in the future and using some future tech, but the poster colors seem more of a marketing schtick rather than homage to a (remake of) a classic.
Well, these are my thoughts. If you watch “Reminiscence,” let me know what you think.
✌