DIY VIRAL
The author Robert Scucci
| Published
Hugh Jackman may have recently brought Wolverine out of retirement with last year Deadpool & Wolverinebut when he's not wearing a yellow suit wrapped around an adamantium-infused skeleton, he's not so bad in the thriller genre. The year 2021 Reminder is a prime example of Jackman taking the lead outside of Marvel in this existential tech-noir film about an investigator who revisits his painful memories to uncover clues about the disappearance of the love of his life. While Jackman's stellar performance is supported by the talents of Tandive Newton and Rebecca Ferguson, Reminder doesn't quite hold its ground after it's ramped up, but the build-up and cinematography alone make this film worth watching on Max if you want to see Jackman portray a cynical detective racing against the clock.
Memory machine
Reminder begins with Nick Bannister (Hugh Jackman) and Emily “Watts” Sanders (Thandiwe Newton), who work from a repurposed interrogation machine that uses sensory deprivation as a means to allow her clients to revisit cherished memories from the past for a nominal fee. Offering a healthy meta-commentary on how nostalgia is sold, Nick's stories act as a vehicle for exposition and personal reflection with just a touch of cynicism, as if he were a hard-nosed private eye from a 1930s pulp magazine.
Even though Nick has repeat clients who want to relive their past instead of living in the present, and government contracts to use his memory machine to review suspicious memories of various cases, he barely does enough business to keep the lights on. Boring and simple in motion, Nick injects the subjects with a sleep serum, places them in a tank of water, and guides them through their meditations with his voice, while saving them on memory discs for his recordings.
Everything changes for Nick when he's about to close up shop for the day, and May (Rebecca Ferguson) walks in, begging to let her get treatment so she can find the missing keys. With a shaky timeline, we learn that Nick and Mae become romantically involved before she suddenly disappears. Confused and desperate, Nick repeatedly succumbs to his memories so that he can find clues that will help him find May.
Romance with a touch of crime drama
Although Mae's disappearance is the main conflict Remindera new investigation is launched involving a drug kingpin named St. Joe (Daniel Wu), a corrupt cop Cyrus Booth (Cliff Curtis), and a highly addictive substance known as bac. Nick's main goal is to reunite with May through the memory machine, but as he digs deeper into the recesses of his memories, he learns that May's presence is tied to the rest of his investigation. Not knowing whether May is leaving clues to signal for help or sending him on a wild goose chase, Nick slowly unravels as he tries to make sense of his and the suspects' memories.
We have a start at home
Channeling some seriously The beginning energy, Reminder has all the makings of a thought-provoking technological thriller, but gets lost in the weeds by the third act. As Nick's obsession with May continues to burden his being, the line between his memories and real life becomes blurred throughout the story. It's worth mentioning, though, that the flashback sequences are stunning vignettes that evoke the nostalgia you feel when you look back fondly on better days, even if the good times themselves may have just been lies we tell ourselves.
Reminder was a complete bomb at the box office when it was released, but it's a visually stunning film that tries to ask some serious questions about the past, the people we care about, and how our perceptions really depend on our point of view and our current mental state. country. In other words, if you look deep into your past for clues, chances are you'll find them, whether they're true or not, because you want to see them so badly.
Reminder is currently streaming on Max and is worth a watch if you're fine with the letdown of a third act after a significant existential build-up.
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DIY VIRAL
