Starring Hugh Jackman, Thandiwe Newton, Rebecca Ferguson

Directed by Lisa Joy

Warner Bros., out now

A private investigator of the mind navigates the alluring world of the past when his life is changed by a new client.

For a film that makes the point many times that too much nostalgia and obsessing over the past is a bad thing, it spends a lot of its running time reminding us of other (better) movies while not leaving us with anything memorable in itself.

Director Lisa Joy’s (Westworld) directorial debut from her own script triggers déjà vu from the very beginning as Nick Bannister (Hugh Jackman, Logan) delivers some world-weary dialogue about how Miami is now partially under water, and because of the extreme heat people live a nocturnal existence. He runs a business with Watts (Thandiwe Newton, Solo) that allows people to relive moments in their past, the image played out to onlookers. This tech is great, because it can be used for crime detection and to ease the loss of a loved one.

Then in through the door staggers redhead femme fatale Mae (Rebecca Ferguson, Dune) in a Jessica Rabbit scarlet dress, asking for help in finding her keys (yes, honestly). Before long, Bannister is hopelessly in love with her, and being the dope that he is, realises too late that maybe she hasn’t been as honest with him as she’s been suggesting.

It’s a creaky old hard-boiled film noir plot that has already been updated with future tech in movies like Blade Runner, Total Recall and Minority Report. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have the inspiration of a Philip K Dick story to propel it, feeling more like a low-rent Philip Marlowe wannabe. The plot unfolds, but it’s not clever or shocking, just a straight-forward resolution of a crime procedural.

Poor Jackman is saddled with some clunky dialogue, Ferguson gets little more to do than slink about, with Newton getting the lion’s share of the action. But inevitably she’s a heavy drinker, hitting the bottle where the plot requires, and this is just one area where contrivances are convenient rather than likely. And I still struggle with the memory viewer which shows the person interacting with others in their past. Why is it not all point of view? You don’t remember things as if you’re watching a movie in a long shot… unless you need this as a MacGuffin to fix something later.

Verdict: Disappointingly predictable and derivative, it’s as if Blade Runner never happened. Think about it too long and the whole thing collapses like a house of cards. 5/10

Nick Joy