Reminiscence

2021, Lisa Joy (writer Pushing Daisies) -- download

I download pretty much every C-Grade and up scifi movie (skipping the F- grade actioners that proliferate, usually starring Bruce Willis) that comes across the torrents of movies available for (arrr) pirates. The trailer of this one caught my attention for a number of reasons: a near post-apocalypse (the rising of the oceans; Miami is flooded), and a decidedly noir feel to it. But two elements turned me off, and delayed my actual viewing: the base premise is that the world sucked and people were addicted to a technology that allows you to relive memories, and because our main character becoming obsessed with a woman after just meeting her. Despite my fondness for disaster, my brain just didn't want to buy into people actually still living in a flooded city -- it would just be abandoned wouldn't it? Also, addicted to memories? Really? How many people have such dear memories they would pay good money to relive them over and over? And the main obsessed by a woman to the point of tearing his comfortable world apart is tired, too often retread ground. And yet...

Little did I know how much Joy was going to embrace the noir aspects of the movie, allowing me to wash away any of my grumpiness (movie related, general is still there, always, like Bruce Banner), and give me a lot of joy. Via the voice over, we meet Nick Bannister (Hugh Jackman, The Wolverine) who runs a low rent version of the memory replay business in the sodden, but above water level, sections of Miami. His clients are usually the depressed, lonely or desperate. He's a vet of the Land Wars (once the water began rising in earnest, wars were fought to control the remaining dry land) and totally not a private detective. He and his assistant Watts (Thandiwe Newton, Westworld) are barely scraping by as he is a bit of a soft spot with his customers. And then Mae, the woman in the red dress (Rebecca Ferguson, Doctor Sleep), walks in. All good foils in noir movies wear red dresses. And she's even a chanteuse! She has a simple request -- help her find her keys, which is easily completed, but intrigues Nick enough (totally not Rick) at her night club lounge act. Cue bartender cleaning glasses with a rag.

Rick falls for Mae, in a bad way, as they always do in noir movies. Watts cautions him, but he doesn't listen. And then Mae disappears. Rick is distraught and obsessed and despite Watts' objections, he focuses all his time and attention on finding her. And only ends up digging up a tragic story fraught with deception and betrayal, murder and sad songs.

Not only is this an incredibly well done noir movie, but it also dives just enough into the world building that I could not help but stick around. And the three leads are such accomplished actors, they lend themselves so well to this somewhat cliché (what else are noir stories but tropes and clichés?) that I was quickly buying into everything. This world, accepted because we easily believe that the rich only take from the poor, and the poorest can only continue to live in the damp, sodden remains of the world. The rich live on dry land, the rest of us just .... float.

Joy proves that you can accomplish something in the world of film even with your debut, as long as you have a strong investment in the material. She also benefits from her exposure to the film world, having been involved in production and writing of properties I love, Westworld, Burn Notice and Pushing Daisies. 

There was a little trick she played with in this movie, that I rather adored, despite it being just this side of over-used. We would be treated to flash backs and recollections, only to have them come to their conclusion, and we see it is all being depicted via the technology. Nick was showing Watts what he knew, or reliving a memory to find other information in the details. Even when Nick went from being hopelessly in love with Mae, to understanding that she used him, he had a mystery to unravel, a mystery all wrapped in memories of the past, which eventually lead him to a conclusion. The emotion behind all of this is handled delicately but passionately, and because it is noir, I could accept it all the more, as mains in noir always live their emotions turned up to eleven. In the end, all Nick has is his memories.