First look reviewScience fiction and fantasy films This article is more than 8 years oldReviewSelf/Less review: clue/less as soul of Ben Kingsley is put in Ryan Reynolds's body
This article is more than 8 years oldSome potentially interesting ideas get totally lost as Tarsem Singh’s fantasy drama descends into a series of dull chase scenes and bananas conceits
“You can’t take it with you,” suggested George S Kaufman and Moss Hart (with a little help from the First Epistle to Timothy). But what if you could stash it some place? Self/Less, which begins as an updated Astounding Science Fiction story before devolving into warmed-over, third-tier action, suggests a near future where the super rich might extend their years by dumping their consciousness into blank vessels prior to death. The procedure doesn’t exactly go as advertised.
Ben Kingsley is amusing and, importantly, just a little bit sympathetic as Trump-esque Manhattan real estate mogul Damian Hale, who can destroy the careers of upstarts who dare not kiss the ring with the mere snap of a finger. But he can’t kick the metastasised cancer in his body. Nor can he find any common ground with his daughter (Michelle Dockery) who spends her days toiling at a non-profit community organising centre, ratty couch and all. Following a tip, he meets Matthew Goode, a sinister scientist with thick glasses (boooo) and a British accent (hissss) who may as well introduce himself as Dr Hugh B Riss. One faked death later and Damian’s essence is ported over to one of the handsome specimens kept in an enormous ziploc bag. In this case, Ryan Reynolds.
New Damian takes a little while to relearn how to walk (and memorise his cover identity) but soon starts enjoying the good life. With ample dough stashed prior to “dying”, he’s set up in a gorgeous townhouse in New Orleans’ French quarter. He’s playing basketball, he’s seducing women. But when he forgets to take his pills on time, he experiences uncomfortable brain zaps – strong and troubling visions of false memories. Or are they???
In a twist that won’t surprise anyone who has seen RoboCop, we learn that the new host bodies for rich folk aren’t organic tissue grown in a vat. In this tale, they are desperate people who sold their bodies for money. In the case of Ryan Reynolds’ former self, his daughter needed an expensive medical procedure to live. (We know this because, when we snoop into his house, Natalie Martinez’s character is still leaving the bills right there on the table for exposition purposes.) But that’s not all! He also used to be a special forces badass in Afghanistan, so, when trouble brews, this updated version of John Frankenheimer’s Seconds pivots to become The Bourne Identity. Only far, far worse than either of those films.
Ryan Reynolds does the best he can with the material. He is inherently likeable, so we’re quick to accept him as a do-gooder ready to fight the baddies at the centre of this trickery. Indeed, there’s hardly a whiff of his former self once he changes bodies. If this were a better movie, this could be a launching point for all sorts of theological discussions. (I’m pretty sure I heard the Rebirth Brass Band in one of the French quarter scenes.) But any intelligence is tossed once we get mired in a series of dull chase scenes.
While the interior design is flashy, and the epicurean New Orleans montage has some pizzazz, I was surprised to read Self/Less’ end credits. I had forgotten this was directed by Tarsem Singh, the visionary who knocked the music industry on its ear with the video for REM’s Losing My Religion in 1991. Singh has four other feature credits – The Cell, The Fall, Immortals and Mirror, Mirror. Quite frankly, I wouldn’t recommend any of them without reservations, but at least they all had a pronounced and extraordinary visual mark. Self/Less is, by and large, shot like cheapo television. There’s more panache in an episode of The Flash, and a better spin on far out sci-fi concepts, too.
Like the spirit of Damian Hale, Self/Less isn’t wholly irredeemable. Somewhere in there is a good movie. I suggest taking the negatives and seeing if we can’t transfer it into a healthier, better looking version. What could possibly go wrong with that?
Self/Less is released in the US on 10 July and in the UK on 17 July
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