Review of Self/less (2015) by Dottheeyes — 09 Jul 2015

I strongly suspect Self/less will be criticized more for what it is not than what it is. As the film begins, icy real-estate magnate Damian (Ben Kingsley) is diagnosed with cancer and facing the end of his life, beset by fear and regret.

Out of desperation, he agrees to a highly expensive and unlawful medical procedure developed by an enigmatic scientist (Matthew Goode, exuding very British malevolence). The treatment involves the transfer of his mind into a youthful and reportedly laboratory-grown new body (Ryan Reynolds).

At first, Damian enjoys his extended lease on life and renewed vigor, but disorienting, opaque memories he cannot identify lead him to investigate the true origin of his new form. To be honest, this film does not cover much ground as a piece of cerebral and/or psychedelic speculative fiction, a fact which may dispirit viewers since it is by Tarsem Singh, a music-video veteran and the director of such stylish cult favorites as The Cell and The Fall.

The first-act cognitive switch is utilized as a plot-inciting device, à la the wrong-man dubiety in North by Northwest or amnesia in The Bourne Identity, rather than an invitation to travel inside the human mind and explore its contradictory, ever-shifting complexity.

And though both are in fine form, Kingsley (featured only briefly) and Reynolds do almost nothing to emulate one another, not even in the early scenes in which Damian undergoes physical therapy to become comfortable inside his just-purchased figure.

No trace of the elder English actor's fierce, guarded, stern turn can be found in Reynolds' instantly more charismatic and relaxed performance. However, its shortcomings as science fiction notwithstanding, Self/less is a very well-executed action film.

A certain one-man-against-a-deadly-conspiracy tension builds at a steady and involving pace, and twists and turns are well-placed throughout. The plentiful sequences of chasing and fighting are staged with spacial clarity and laced with a modest-but-still-recognizable amount of Singh's characteristic visual whimsy.

One key scene, for instance, unfolds in an out-of-the-way industrial field of discarded, decaying Mardi Gras floats and props. There is also a grounded and low-key charm to the film's set pieces, perhaps because it is a comparatively inexpensive studio release, particularly at this time of year.

It entirely eschews ultra-over-the-top, physics-defying computer-generated wizardry. So, Self/less may bend one's mind only slightly, but it does raise the pulse and warmly satisfy as an escapist summertime jaunt.