Bland body-swap thriller a flop for Kingsley and Reynolds

THE high-concept sci-fi premise is promising, but Self/less fails to capitalise on its potential acting talent or high-tech idea.

On paper, it probably made for an interesting read – a dying billionaire doesn’t want to give up the good times and makes a deal with a shady Brit scientist for a body swop. As time in his new body passes, though, he starts to wonder where it comes from and makes a horrible discovery.

Kingsley is on screen for, like, 15 minutes as the billionaire, Damian Hale, establishing that the workaholic has a terrible relationship with his daughter and seems more afraid of his own mortality than worried about the line the scientist uses – that mankind should not have to give up its geniuses and miss out on amazing discoveries because of old age.

Step in Reynolds and Hale swops the golden Donald Trump flat in Manhattan for an even more fabulous party existence in New Orleans.

Convinced the body he is using belonged to someone, Hale (now as Reynolds, not Kingsley) goes looking, but the scientist can’t have that.

What is Matthew Goode like as the scientist Albright? Well, he’s not quite Frankenstein, or even Igor, for that matter, but rather bland. Self-serving yes, but an interesting character with a compelling reason to do what he has done and an inner fire to believe he has the right of it? Not so much.

Reynolds, too, isn’t exactly channelling his inner Kingsley like he was supposed to – this version of the rude man from the beginning is more charming and worried about doing the right thing. You never see the Kingsley/Hale mannerisms or hear him.

Despite the film turning into an action movie with guns and fight sequences about half way, it just never gets exciting or tense.

We pick up a cute kid along the way, but still this film has very little by way of personality to keep you interested.

Some big ideas get mentioned – about what makes up identity, the evolutionary path of humanity, the concept of immortality, the morality of tinkering with people’s lives – but these never get delved into.

At least with The Cell director Tarsem Singh could hide the slight narrative behind stunning visuals, but here there is nothing to distract from Reynolds trying soooo hard to keep your attention, and failing thanks to a lacklustre script and underused co-actors.

If you liked Transcendence, you will like this.