Review: “Self/less” (Rated PG-13)

Focus FeaturesIn the great tradition of Freaky Friday, yet having absolutely nothing to do with Freaky Friday, comes director Tarsem Singh’s body-swapping sci-fi drama Self/less, starring Ryan Reynolds and Ben Kingsley.

Kingsley plays Damian, the wealthiest real estate developer in New York City, a character that seems to be very loosely based on Donald Trump.  Damian lives in an ornate apartment, with gold-accented everything, overlooking Central Park. But there’s a problem: he’s dying. Nothing a lot of money can’t solve, right?  Or can it?

In this instance, Damian purchases a different type of property: a healthy body in the form of Ryan Reynolds.  A genius named Dr. Albright (Matthew Goode) has pioneered something called “shedding” (that’s the name the writers came up with?), which is the process of shedding your old, sick body for a young and healthy one.  And you don’t even have to give up drinking, smoking, or your favorite fatty foods!

Damian has doubts, but Albright assures him he’ll inhabit a custom-built body, genetically engineered to perfection.  Let’s just say, that’s not exactly true.  As soon as the transfer takes place, Damian, now known as Edward, starts having vivid memories that aren’t his own — memories so strong and frequent, he decides to investigate.  That’s when Self/less does a genre transfer, shedding its slick, slightly creepy sci-fi plot and becoming a predictable action thriller.

Reynolds is fully committed here and for that, and rest of the cast, I wish Self/less was a better movie. It’s not a complete waste of time, and you can see what the movie was trying to say about relationships, money and love, but it turns out to be a poorly communicated, mixed message that gets lost in a film that doesn’t know what it’s trying to be.

Two-and-a-half out of five stars.

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