Time and a place ...
EVERY TRIP TO THE PAST IS A CLUE TO SOLVING A MYSTERY FOR GRITTY PRIVATE DETECTIVE JACKMAN
REMINISCENCE (M) Director: Lisa Joy (feature debut) Starring: Hugh Jackman, Rebecca Ferguson, Thandiwe Newton Rating: ★★★
A future built on reliving the past
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.
COME FROM AWAY (PG)
Rating ★★★
APPLE TV+
Fans of theatre musicals have been doing it tough since the dawn of the Covid era, and it looks as if it will take a long time for their preferred medium to return to anything like its former, razzle-dazzled self.
Many of those fans would have swarmed to last year’s magnificent live recording of the musical phenomenon Hamilton, which did huge numbers worldwide on Disney+. While Apple’s live, intheatre capture of the 2017 Broadway hit Come From Away won’t be causing an instant sensation on the home-streaming landscape, it should be marked down as a must-see for anyone who misses the bright lights and sounds of a musical in full swing.
This recent performance of the production is a simply staged affair performed with real verve and warmth in front of a loved-up New York audience. For those unfamiliar with the
folksy premise of the piece, a small Canadian community rises to the occasion when faced with an influx of travellers from around the world, all of whom have been displaced by 2001’s September 11 attacks. While some of the songs are a bit hokey and the performances can get very hammy, the musical’s heart always remains in the right, crowd-pleasing place. Oh, and most importantly of all, the camera placements are as best-seat-in-thehouse as it gets.