Time and a place ...

EVERY TRIP TO THE PAST IS A CLUE TO SOLVING A MYSTERY FOR GRITTY PRIVATE DETECTIVE JACKMAN

An ambitious combo of science fiction and film noir, Reminiscence is a movie a lot of people will definitely like, but few will genuinely love.

Nothing wrong with that outcome for a feature sincerely wanting to give its audience something different, daring and diverting.

The most arresting aspect of Reminiscence is its skilful manipulation of time and place.

Let’s deal with the setting first: a futuristic Miami already mostly underwater, an American Venice created by climate change, and controlled by literal land barons.

Dry space is at a premium here. You wanna stand on some? You’re gonna have to pay the crooks who own anything that ain’t wet.

As for time in Reminiscence, well, it is as fluid a commodity as the tides that slosh up against doorsteps daily.

Just ask Nick (Hugh Jackman). He’s a private detective whose work trades in nothing but time.

Together with his business partner Watts (Thandiwe Newton),

Nick has mastered a technology – centred around a digital bath-like gizmo – that allows paying clients to travel back to key moments in their past.

No-one can alter what has already happened. They can only be immersed in virtual action replays of their own lives.

Having guided so many people through these temporary trips backwards, Nick knows how powerful such journeys can be when it comes to solving a mystery. Every replayed moment is a clue in itself.

Memories can change over time, and therefore so can truth. However, the past never lies.

Is there a story threaded through of all of this heady, highconcept material?

Yes, there is, and this is where the ambition of Reminiscence gets thwarted by some average scripting outcomes.

Jackman’s gritty gumshoe Nick is such a hard case, you just know he is going to get softened up by the first femme fatale who sashays

through his door. In rapidfire succession, sultry nightclub siren Mae (Rebecca Ferguson) serenades, seduces, loves and leaves Nick. In fact her exit is so hasty, it is almost as if she never existed.

Nick wants answers. But he has no leads. However, he does have that high-end hot-tub time machine thing in his office with which to mount an investigation. Reminiscence is now showing in cinemas in selected states, and will be available as a Premium Rental on all digital platforms from Friday.