Media hype and industry marketing make us salivate for most films weeks or months before we get to see them, as we get our prejudices and pet loves/hates all in a tangle in anticipation. The illustrious unknown is nowadays rarer than yore, and therefore so much more delightful – when it is, that is.
Self/less is the 5th feature film directed by Tarsem Singh, who specializes in SF/FX/fantastic stuff I never saw, feature under review excluded.
It tells the Faustian (as appears to be often the case with films reviewed by The Macmahonian) story of Damian (Ben Kinglsey, at his marble-chiseled best) a multimillionaire terminally ill with cancer who accepts a proposal from a secret/hi tech med lab led by Albright (Matthew Goode) to undergo a sort of body transplant that will rid him of the disease and rejuvenate him decades, only to discover after the fact that the transplant was made at the expense of someone else's life (“young Damian”, played by Ryan Reynolds). To make matters worse, Damian has to regularly take pills to stop the deceased's personality to creep back and take over his mind. Haunted by flashes of his bodily predecessor's life, Damien goes on a quest to find his grieving wife and little daughter, make things a lot worse until finally he makes them right again through (spoiler alert) the ultimate sacrifice.
Self/less was almost universally and to me incomprehensibly blackballed (according to the usual evidence, e.g.Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, IMDb). The plot's familiar resonances are creatively managed and the direction is discreet but dramatically effective and moving. Matthew Goode's toff-accented iron-willed psycho-doc provides more than the necessary dislikeability to make the viewer root for the good guy (the films weak spot, perhaps, as Reynolds is likeable but doesn’t have the histrionics necessary to be a convincing reincarnation of Ben Kingsley's Noo Yoik accented high-octane self-made man). And do yourself a favour and take a moment to delight in the photography by Brendan Galvin, every shot a lesson of understatement the likes of Anton Corbijn or Stephen Soderbergh could do worse than examine.
Certainly a minor film, but with more than enough to recommend it, is The Macmahonian's verdict on Self/less.