Reminiscence

Hugh Jackman heads the cast of this sci-fi thriller as Nick Bannister, a former soldier in a flooded Miami of the not-too-distant future who has developed a machine that enables his clients to access vivid reruns of their memories. When nightclub singer Mae (Rebecca Ferguson) calls upon his services, she opens a can of worms involving crooked industrialists and violent drugs kingpins, with Nick at the centre of a labyrinthine plot threatening the lives of everyone he loves. Having cut her teeth on TV's Westworld, writer/director Lisa Joy fashions a debut feature that combines hard-boiled detective fiction with syrupy melodrama to occasionally confusing effect. Viewers are guided through the narrative's twists and the turns by Nick's noir-ish voiceover, and the cautious reservations of his straight-talking assistant (Thandiwe Newton). The multilayered memory playbacks owe a debt to the dream worlds of Christopher Nolan's Inception, although this is ultimately a much more accessible movie.