This film had a great premise -- neural implants that record all of a person's memories from birth -- but did very little with it. Like too many movies I see these days, it has a great cast, excellent production values, appealing cinematography and a lousy script. While watching, I got the feeling that the script had been written by a filmmaker. After it was over, I checked the credits, and I was right. Could we please ban directors from making films of their own screenplays until they learn how to write a decent story? This could have been a great movie if the script had been better.
A few of the many story & character problems:
A better script and more time devoted to characterization would have helped. Most of the characters are too flat, and some behave in very unrealistic ways. The tattoo scene went on several minutes too long, and there are probably others that could have been shortened to let the characters do more.
On the plus side, the film is visually beautiful, and the cast gives some good performances. If you don't care about story -- obviously, I do -- then you're more likely to enjoy this film. It's a case of style over substance here. If this film were a meal, it would be gorgeously presented, but afterward you'd be thinking "It was nice, but it didn't taste like I thought it would. And I'm still hungry."
A few of the many story & character problems:
- The neural implant idea wasn't taken far enough. Apart from protests against implants and Re-memory viewings, there's no indication how implants affect society on a larger scale.
- You'd expect to see characters modifying their behavior given the knowledge that others have implants, but they don't. Example: the mother's completely unrealistic behavior in regard to the child molestation subplot. Hello! The whole family has implants, and you're going to let your husband molest your daughter? The father knew he and and the daughter had implants, but he did it anyway? Makes no sense.
- Neural implant technology is hand-waved. It's never explained why implants are done while a child is in the womb (surely complex surgery, apart from the ethical aspects), but no one gets them them later in life. Accessing your implant while alive is dangerous, yet the scene where Alan is okay right up until the timer runs out is silly; there should have been some side effects before that. Also that someone could have an implant go undetected for about 50 years is questionable.
- Main plot is not one coherent story. Most of the film centers on Alan Hakman trying to find a man he thought had died as a child. That story is more or less resolved, then it shifts to him being chased by the anti-implant crowd for his memories for a small portion of the film before the abrupt, unsatisfying ending.
- Alan Hakman as the protagonist, AKA the hero, is terribly weak. His actions revolve around himself. He seems to show compassion for the molested girl, but he just wanted information from her for his search for the man with the glasses anyway. He puts together a memory video for his love interest, and she says it's like he read her mind. Seems sweet, doesn't it? Then you find out later that it's because he read her dead boyfriend's mind! He had the man's memories from his implant. Totally creepy that he's pursuing this woman after seeing her in another man's memories AND he has no problem taking things from those memories to woo her. Mira Sorvino decking Robin Williams and destroying his equipment at that point was the most realistically human moment of the entire film. Alan religiously adheres to the three cutter's rules (simplistic and flimsy, given the implications of implants), yet he completely lacks ethics in using other people's memories for his own purposes where the cutter's code does not apply. Ultimately, everything he does in the film is for his own selfish ends, which does not a hero make. It's difficult to care about him because of it.
- The guy who DOES have a purpose greater than himself and a concern for other people is the villain! Jim Caviezel gets the best character in the movie. (Mira Sorvino as Delila could have been good, but she was reduced to playing a sort of "voice of conscience". A waste of her talent.) Fletcher is the one character who comes closest to having the traits of a hero, but Hakman is set up as the protagonist; you couldn't flip it, though, because Alan is far too weak to be a villain either.
A better script and more time devoted to characterization would have helped. Most of the characters are too flat, and some behave in very unrealistic ways. The tattoo scene went on several minutes too long, and there are probably others that could have been shortened to let the characters do more.
On the plus side, the film is visually beautiful, and the cast gives some good performances. If you don't care about story -- obviously, I do -- then you're more likely to enjoy this film. It's a case of style over substance here. If this film were a meal, it would be gorgeously presented, but afterward you'd be thinking "It was nice, but it didn't taste like I thought it would. And I'm still hungry."