REVIEW — “Self/less”

Self/less follows Damian Hale (Ben Kingsley), an extremely wealthy real estate mogul in New York City. Damian is completely business oriented and will achieve success by any means necessary. Even at the cost of close personal relationships, including that with his own daughter (Michelle Dockery). Diagnosed with rapidly worsening terminal cancer, Damian is scrambling for solutions. In his search he comes across a medical procedure that has the miraculous ability to transfer his consciousness into another younger and healthier body (Ryan Reynolds).

However, this plan comes with a catch. In addition to the steep price tag, Damian can never contact anyone from his old life. With his fresh body he is to begin a new life, free and detached from his old one.  However, things become a little complicated as Damian attempts to settle into his new life. Constantly bombarded with visions, he begins to wonder if his procedure might be full of more secrets than he was lead to believe.

The premise was very intriguing to me and starts off with a lot of potential. But due to the lackluster writing, it doesn’t move beyond your standard action movie. The story is acceptable but it’s extremely predictable. Even seasoned actors like Ben Kingsley, Victor Garber didn’t have the power to move it beyond being tolerable.

Self/less is very visually appealing. Stylistically, the direction is all over the place. But the location scout deserves some praise. Almost every place Damian travels to becomes my new happy place. The action sequences are surprisingly well done. Especially a particularly tense car chase. Without these positive features, this movie would be worthless.

Self/ less is whatever. It’s the most “whatever” movie I’ve ever seen. Not good, not really bad either.  It’s the perfect movie to put on when you are just looking for an excuse to get it on with your Tinder hookup without your roommates overhearing you.

2.5/5