This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
One Born Every Minute
Plot Overview
In the not too distant future, when
a captivating chanteuse (Rebecca Ferguson) still croons the familiar
strain, “Where or When,” at the Coconut Club, planet Earth
has heated up and the sea level has risen. London has sunk into the
ocean and New Orleans can't be far behind. Refugees heading for Florida
might
trip upon a white clapboard house on stilts. Then there's
a windmill forest in view of the partially submerged buildings
of the Keys, and a causeway with rails awash leading to: a floating
market, the sunken coast—where the poor “survive or
die,”—and the spill-zone where business is still carried
out after a fashion … for now. Finally, a land baron's redoubt
is protected by a huge surrounding dam holding back the crashing waves.
His elevated estate was built up from excavated mud leaving the poor
further in the hole. Grass grows there in a manicured lawn watered
by an automated sprinkler. Nice.
Skiffs and motorboats ply the sunken
coast, and since the spill-zone is waterlocked, people there
can get anywhere accessible by biking or on foot.
Nevertheless, some still drive, and their cars are all hogs,
gas guzzlers, or muscle machines, every one. They could be had for
a song when the waters inundated the land, gasoline is in plentiful supply,
and who cares about mpg when
there are so few miles one can travel
anyway? What about their contribution to man-made global warming?
Oh, that was all a scam so the rich and powerful could profit on various
carbon credits and/or consolidate their power. Oh, we warmed up all
right but from different causes. There's no stigma attached to driving
a big car, so that's what people do; they'd been denied so long. [I've written more generally on
the fallacy of the greenhouse gas model of man-made climate change,
in my review of the 2015 movie, “The
Martian,” in which a botanist lives on Mars in an actual
greenhouse.] When the poor finally riot, they don't bother
going after the automobiles—although they do overturn
one car for some reason. They're coming for the rich and the issue
is liebensraum:
“DRY LAND FOR ALL.”
“Reminiscence” opens at sunset
with a dishabille Nick Bannister (Hugh Jackman) sloshing through the
water, past a card grifter on the sidewalk, to enter his
workplace Bannister & Associates now housed in the vacated
First Miami Bank & Trust building. Everybody from top to
bottom is on the hustle. Bannister plays on people's nostalgia to
induce hypnotic regression enhanced electronically and
chemically. When two of their reliable clients up and disappear, and
someone had been rifling their files secured in the old bank's
vault, they suspect foul play, but they don't have anything worth
stealing, just records of people's stupid memories. There's a canard
that says: when you're engaged in a hustle and you can't spot the
mark … then you're the mark. Bannister uses his investigative
skills augmented by modern technology to go on the hunt, and
he discovers connections to organized crime and drugs. A bent cop
Cyrus Boothe (Cliff Curtis) gives him a pointed warning: “You
think you want answers, but you don't, and there's safety in that.
Your ignorance protects you. … The truth ain't gonna set you
free.” That last
is what everybody recognizes as coming from the Bible, whether
they know anything else in the good book or not. That harks unto
another investigator created by author Mickey Spillane:
“You know anything about the Scriptures, Mr. Hammer?”“I got the ‘eye for an eye’ part down,” I said. “I'm kind of fuzzy after that.” (17)
Ideology
The setting of this picture is covered with water, water everywhere, and fire was used by the land barons to devalue the land, by the wiseguys to teach lessons, and by the hypnotist to cement them. Such vivid imagery is worth comparing to, (Prov. 30:15-16) “The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough: The grave; and the barren womb; the earth that is not filled with water; and the fire that saith not, It is enough.” In this movie there are two cries for care: from the boy Freddie (Roxton Garcia) when he loses his mother, and from the lawyers of an aged land baron Walter Sylvan (Brett Cullen) who object to hypnotic interrogation of their client because his body is not up to it. The crying demands of infancy (from “the barren womb”) and senility (to “the grave”) are represented there.
“The earth that is not filled with water” speaks of workable land after all standing water has been absorbed leaving room for more. Originally, it was a reference to Old Man Noah's flood when the waters abated, (Job 28:4-5) “The flood breaketh out from the inhabitant; even the waters forgotten of the foot: they are dried up, they are gone away from men. As for the earth, out of it cometh bread: and under it is turned up as it were fire.”
“And the fire that saith not, It is enough” is a reference to human metabolism that burns all the time requiring fuel to feed it, i.e. mouths to be fed. In regards to this glorified soap opera highlighting conflicts over limited resources, I need hardly elaborate.
Production Values
“” was written and directed by Lisa Joy who was also one of its producers. She is the sister-in-law of Christopher Nolan and wife of writer Jonathan Nolan with whom they together created the TV series, “Westworld.” “Reminiscence” stars Hugh Jackman, Rebecca Ferguson and Thandiwe Newton. The cast also includes Cliff Curtis and Daniel Wu. The acting all held up okay. Newton played Nick's associate Watts a closet lush and veritable Annie Oakley … as long as she's got enough ammunition.
MPAA rated it PG–13 for strong violence, drug material throughout, sexual content and some strong language. Filming took place in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. Kudos for the trick photography and the made-to-order advanced props. Languages are billed as English, Mandarin, and Spanish, but virtually all of it was in English including one pleasant British accent. Spanish was heard only in the background at the floating market. Mandarin Chinese was sprinkled into pusher Saint Joe (Daniel Wu)'s street English to create the pidgin he acquired when interred in Louisiana's Ninth Ward. The Chinese word for nine is jiu a homonym for Joe, and the Saint in his name derives from his conjectured ability to walk on water when the levee broke. His patois includes such gems as, “You got guanxi [business] with me, pal?” “But that's all water under the bridge now, pengyou [pal],” “Payment is not the wenti [question] holding up this transaction, pengyou,” “Now, gao su wo [tell me], why are you really here?” Piece of cake.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
“Reminiscence” was masterfully done if a bit on the complicated side. It necessarily relied heavily on flashbacks and was multi-layered. Of course it's a chick flick, and I couldn't keep up with the emotional content any more than the next guy, but the women should love it. This is not the kind of film whose story you can pick up on if you don't start from the beginning. See it if you can handle a dark soap opera in the sci-fi vein.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Well done action flick. Suitability for Children: Suitable for children 13+ years with guidance. Special effects: Absolutely amazing special effects. Video Occasion: Chick flick. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture quoted from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software. Print.
Spillane, Mickey. The Goliath Bone.. Copyright © 2008 by Mickey Spillane Publishing LLC. Orlando: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, First Edition. Print.
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