Drew Turney
When you learn this film was directed by Tarsem Singh, memories of the eye-catching ”The Cell” (2000), ”Immortals” (2011) and particularly his passion project ”The Fall” (2006) will spring to mind, and if you expect a similarly arresting visual experience here you’ll be disappointed. The Indian born director has made a straight thriller that bears none of his previously iconic pictorial language.
It’s a philosophical story about memory, identity and what makes us who we are wrapped up in a chase thriller as rich industrialist Damian (Ben Kinglsey) consults with enigmatic Albright (Matthew Goode), a scientist who owns a company catering to the very rich. Damian has learned that he has less than six months to live thanks to the cancer eating him alive, and Albright’s dark art will transpose his mind to a new, young and healthy body for a price.
Albright assures the older man the bodies are grown in a lab from scratch but when Damian wakes in his new form (Ryan Reynolds), he starts to wonder.
At first things are great. He moves to New Orleans, dates a string of beauties, enjoys health and fitness and lives in a mansion befitting his wealth. But if he stops taking the prescribed medication he keeps seeing images in his head that feel like memories – of a woman, a young girl and an idyllic rural house.
Damian decides to go off the reservation to find out the truth behind the body he’s now inhabiting, and when hired goons with guns come after him it seems to prove not only that things aren’t as they seem, but that Albright and his operation has secrets worth killing for.
The film morphs into a pretty generic chase thriller from then on, and there are no special effects or flashy scenery beyond some pretty standard thriller car chases and some gunplay.
There isn’t a lot more exploration the film can offer about the central idea (other than just another scientists-are-evil ”Prometheus” tale), but the framework makes for a thriller that’s constructed well enough. It’s a new direction from Singh, whether it’s a good one or not will depend on what you’re hoping for.
