Review of Self/less (2015) by Maksim B — 23 Oct 2015

Built up around intriguing premises Self/Less is a passable delivery which pleases as much as it disappoints. The captivating concept and the potential to have a sort of philosophical touch in the center of a gripping thriller is definitely a promising start of this movie, but the longer it continues the more it suffers from clichés and its totally predictable plot.

The story explores the possibility of keeping someone's mind and conscious alive forever by only using the human bodies as a disposable battery. Given this opportunity the billionaire Damian (Ben Kingsley) avoids finds a much younger "new body" (Ryan Reynolds) and gets the chance to continue living. Of course, nothing is as smooth as expected and soon complications arise as it starts to seem that the body of the "young Damian" belonged to someone else. When this discovery is made director Tarsem Singh has two choices: to go into the mainstream and highly predictable direction or to try delivering something different and more high-concept. Unfortunately he goes for the first option and fails. The second half of the movie is melodramatic, predictable and brings Self/Less to the group of movies which have awesome concept, but deliver much less than they could have delivered.

As a late-summer/early-autumn flick, the movie is definitely a passable choice and it would certainly keep you entertained and satisfied with what you see. Sadly, you would also be able to think of how much better it could have been.