Reminiscence is a movie where people buy the cow even though the milk is free. In an indeterminate future where Miami has become a Venice of the New World, Nick Bannister (Hugh Jackman) runs a business that uses technology to access the memories of people who want to relive their past.
These people, mind you, do not suffer from amnesia; they're just too lazy and/or stupid to use their own brains — not even to remember something as pedestrian as playing with a dog (here’s an idea: buy another dog).
We see the memories of Nick's clients as if they were home movies, which is very convenient but makes zero sense, considering that people don't remember things from a third person perspective; for example, if I wanted to remember watching Reminiscence (fat chance), I wouldn't see myself watching the film.
Writer/director Lisa Joy tries, and fails miserably, to explain why we don't see her characters' memories from their own point of view with a "demonstration" by Nick that proves absolutely nothing except that you can throw as much shit at the wall as you like, but that doesn’t mean it will stick.
This is a less than auspicious debut for Joy, who settles for projecting the usual fixations of her husband and his brother, Jonathan and Christopher Nolan.
At least in Memento, as the name implies, the hero relied on reminders rather than memories per se, which are subjective and unreliable; in contrast, the memories in Reminiscence are as pristine as the dreams in Inception. Ever hear of photographic memory? This is more like photogenic memory.
