If I had to point to a singular reason why I love
speculative fiction as much as I do, it’d have to be the inherent freedom of it
all: Within the confines of the umbrella that is SF, you are
capable of writing about pretty much anything the human imagination can conjure
up. The personification of dreams going to a convention for serial killers? Done.
A go-go dancer who uses a machine gun leg to kill zombies? No worries. A man in
a magical telephone box that travels through time and space? That story’s been
going on for over fifty years now. A piece of burnt bread philosophising about
the nature of life, death and the pursuit of happiness? You can trust Japan to
deliver on that front. So, when a film comes out with a pretty high concept
idea in its framework, it will immediately grab my attention. Whether or not it
can hold my attention for the running
time is another matter.
The plot: Damian (Ben Kingsley) is a wealthy businessman that has been diagnosed with cancer, and he doesn’t have a lot of time left. After getting in contact with Professor Albright (Matthew Goode), he discovers a way that he can cheat death: ‘Shedding’ his old body and transferring his mind into another that’s been grown in a lab (Ryan Reynolds). As Damian settles into his new body and new life, he starts having hallucinations about memories that he didn’t have before. This leads him to discovering that his new body nor the good Professor are all that they appear to be.
This is a concept that has a lot of possibilities for story and visual ideas, as is the case for
most media that discuss the want to live forever. However, neither the director
nor the writers provide enough initial optimism to assume that those
possibilities will be cashed in. Tarsem Singh, while definitely being a
visually talented director, has a habit of taking on high concept scripts and
not really putting enough thought into what is expounded upon to make them
work; whether it’s the sagging attempt at criminal psychology in The Cell or the
lame adaptation of Snow White with Mirror Mirror, his track record isn’t all
that good. Add to that the Pastor brothers, who seem to specialise in stock
horror film plots, and things are looking bleak already. Well, this doesn’t
tread far from their usual territory, although credit to the Pastors for at
least giving us a decent, if well-trodden, concept to start with; the film
itself is visually well-presented and contains some nice fluid camerawork,
and while Tarsem has previously shown the ability to make up for weaker writing
with stunning visuals in The Fall, this is nowhere near that level nor is it
good enough to save this film in any way.
I’ll admit, the core idea of body swapping as a means of
living forever could make a genuinely amazing film: Philosophising about what
constitutes 'life', literal inner conflicts like a Venn diagram of Nightmare In
Silver and Me, Myself & Irene that could show off Reynolds’ acting chops,
or simply posing the question about whether life is even worth repeating; the
possibilities here are many and mighty. Such a shame that all we seem to get
here is a lot of hand-waving of the deeper and potentially unsettling questions
surrounding the concept and tantalising of better scenes than what we actually end up with. Any ethical questions that are brought up by Albright and his methods are
completely wasted for two main reasons: One, the film keeps considering his
actions to be bad and disregard the very clear shades of grey concerning them;
and two, the way said actions are explained, for the most part, make him out to have a better moral compass than our hero; that is, unless you think donating your
organs to science is inherently evil. Sure, once things are revealed later on
like the reason behind Damian’s hallucinations, Albright starts looking more
like the villain that he’s being painted as… but in doing so, they also make
Damian out to be a bit amoral as well.
Even discarding Damian’s role as our lead, this is still a
classic example of an idiot plot where the only reason things are happening as
they do are because all the characters are stupid: Conclusions that are jumped
to for no good reason, nonsensical decisions and overall lack of thought put
into the world-building to make the central impossible thing believable.
Sufficient character drama could have negated the effects of the weak sci-fi
plot that contains the typical plot holes that come from first-time SF writers,
but apparently Tarsem thought that the dramatic scenes were so dull that he
needed to inject random action scenes into the film to keep things interesting.
Credit where it’s due on the fights, as they are decently choreographed and shot,
and they do provide some reprieve from the largely boring dramatic scenes, but
they also clash hideously with the tone of the rest of the film and feel like
pieces of a miscellaneous 80’s action movie screenplay were spliced into it.
Frankly, I would prefer far less car chases and more scenes involving a girl
being taught how to swim, given how the latter made for one of the rare moments
that actually got me to connect with the characters, however short-lived.
So, the writing is a bust and the characters are badly
conceived. But it seems like at least a couple of people in the cast were aware
of such things and tried to soldier on regardless as the acting here is pretty
good. Kingsley may only have part of the first act to himself, stunt top
billing at its most useless, but he definitely gives the pre-Shedding Damian
the air of someone who wants to do more with his life. Professor Albright may
be a poorly-handled bad guy but Goode gives a performance packed with sliminess
that could have served him better with a more over-the-top character; as it
stands, though, he at least works well with the other actors on-screen for
better or for worse. Reynolds, even though his recent track record between this
and Woman In Gold isn’t lending much credibility to his acting, does well at
portraying the older man experiencing life through a younger skin in the
beginning. Of course, it helps that the only real character trait we get for
Damian as a whole is his snarky attitude, something that Reynolds specialises
in.
All in all, as much as I try to avoid echoing the exact
sentiments of other critics as best I can, I can’t help but agree with them:
This is all potential and no pay-off. The premise could have made for at least
a good sci-fi experience, but the writing is weak and fails at most forms of
characterisation and the visuals aren’t up to Tarsem’s pedigree, meaning that
they aren’t capable of salvaging said writing. This doesn’t induce anger as
much it does disappointment and, as anyone who has ever been told off by
their parents will tell you, that is effectively worse. Namely, I’m
exceptionally disappointed that we didn’t get to see Reynolds talking with the
voices in his head, given how the premise here could have gone, but as the
Deadpool film inches closer to release, chances are I’ll get to see that soon
enough. You know, after seeing so many films that have either been offensive or
insulting to watch, it’s weirdly refreshing to watch something that’s just
plain bad.
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