So the future sucks. Well, we knew that; we humans have put a great deal of effort into making sure the future will blow, bite, tank, stink, suck, and wallow. Strangely enough, “Suck and Wallow” is my favorite British candy. Anyhoo, Wolverine is here to guide on gorgeous trip through noir Hell, a.k.a. “Miami.” Well, Miami of the future, which also sucks, not that any of us will be able to tell the difference.
The floods have come; most of Florida is under water. That hasn’t stopped life or production. It just means fewer houses, more boats. The ultra-rich have managed to build themselves above the water line, but most everybody else recognizes ankle deep streets and temperatures in the 100s on a regular basis. Nick (Hugh Jackman) has a memory business. The set-up lies somewhere between Minority Report and Strange Days: Inside a forgotten bank vault, the owners place a client in a bath with a neural headset, Hugh says Jack, man, and the person relives their memories in 3D presto vision. Nick and his partner Watts (Thandiwe Newton) record the session so that there’s, I dunno, blackmail material later on, maybe? The film explains (I paraphrase): “the present sucks, hence there’s money to be made in letting people re-live their past.”
And then Mae (Rebecca Ferguson) shows up, presumably to continue her Mae-be romance from The Greatest Showman. It takes Nick all of three seconds to be smitten; I guess Hugh remembers The Greatest Showman as well. Mae has some lame story about needing to find her keys, so –for the noir-impaired- this is what’s called a “femme fatale,” some hot ticket who will string along the lovesick hero, dominate the plot, and mess up lives … which is exactly what Mae does. Given the majority of femme fatales, we should actually be happy Nick achieved genuine romance before Mae disappeared.
What follows is a classic noir plot – the lovesick puppy/Wolverine needs to find the girl and he’ll bark down any door to do it. And when he’s not putting himself in harm’s way, he’s taken to the memory bath like an addict. Could we become so obsessed 
with memories that we’d want to live in one? Yes, I suppose that might be accurate, especially if the future holds no charm. At times Reminiscence –almost fittingly- gets lost in itself, driving so hard to show us the minutiae of Nick’s obsession that it forgets the film might have other characters and plotlines. Give Reminiscence its due, however; this may not be the tightest plot or most worthy hero arc, but this is a gorgeous film. Watching Reminiscence, I have no problem with noir eschewing standard b&w in favor of the dreamscape palette found here.
The point of this massive beast of a film comes down to one simple theme: Are you living for the future or the past? Reminiscence concludes there really isn’t anything wrong with either choice; it depends on who you are and what’s important to you. That might have been true about ten years ago. In the age we live in now, however, those who wish to live in the past have political power far beyond their numbers and zero tolerance for those who live for the future. And that’s about as charitable as I can be with that statement; the truth is people who believe in the past more than the future have exerted their energy towards maintaining and retrofitting mechanisms that have screwed the world far beyond its ability to compensate. Hence the message is simple, brilliant, complex, and extremely short-sighted all at the same time, much like the film itself.
It’s the future of life as latrine
Collectively, masses pine for what’s been
I’m tellin’ ya, Hugh
If this includes you
Why not recall Wolverine?
Rated PG-13, 116 Minutes
Director: Lisa Joy
Writer: Lisa Joy
Genre: Our screwed future
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Fans of future noir
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Fans of happy films
