Self/less (Blu-ray) – Movie Review
Immortality is often something human beings strive for. While some just want to leave a legacy to immortalize themselves, others literally want to search for the holy grail which would grant them eternal life. What if modern science could grant you immortality, even if you don’t know what the specifics are, and you might not see your loved ones ever again. Would you accept it or would you simply try to live out your normal life the best you can, even if it meant you would be forgotten after a few years? Would it truly be selfless to live out your days in such a manner, or would you become less yourself?
Damian (Ben Kingsley) is a man who has it all, an empire and a ridiculous amount of money to prove it. Well, perhaps he doesn’t have it all, as he only has material possessions, on the family front, he is a lot less rich. Damian has a daughter, who doesn’t really believe in the power of money and tries to change the world in her own way, which makes both parties clash quite often, nonetheless, Damian clearly loves his daughter. He does get a lot of companionship from his close friend, Martin (Victor Garber), not only as a friend but also as a business partner. While living in a house where everything is made out of gold has a certain charm, having an illness that’s untreatable and spread throughout his entire body, Damian has to accept his end is drawing close. Even though he doubts it’s real, Damian has been looking up about ‘shedding’, where one would trade his body for another, in order to continue living, albeit in another ‘skin’. When he suddenly receives a note, with information about this dubious practice, he decides to see what can be done for him.
After receiving an explanation from Dr. Albright (Matthew Goode) in a very hush-hush location, Damian decides to think things over, or at least make arrangements to be transferred to his biologically created new younger body. It’s clear that shedding comes with a lot of hardships, as the patient has to leave behind all of his relatives and friends, and of course the wealth he has built up over his life will be gone for the most part as well. When time finally draws near, Damian gets transferred to his new body, while letting it seem he passed away by invoking a stroke in front of Martin. As a new body takes getting used to, extensive training is needed, as well as learning about his new ‘identity’. When all of a sudden the younger version of Damian (Ryan Reynolds) is pestered by weird hallucinations, Albright immediately gives him pills, which would help him adjust to his new body. Even though the odd doctor claimed this is normal after a successful transfer, Damian feels as if these aren’t hallucinations, but memories of someone else. When he goes out to research, he soon finds out that the organization does not want any of their practices leaked to the outside world.
The pace of this movie is actually rather slow, as it names itself an action movie. Although there are plenty of fight scenes, there is still a lot of story that is being built up first, before you can dig into the action packed conclusion. Nonetheless, things stay rather interesting from start to finish, but in its genre it feels a bit out of place. Many parts of the story feel predictable and at times it feels like the movie is solely carried thanks to the acting performances as well as the overall concept.
Acting performances prove to be topnotch, even though Ben Kingsley only gets limited screen time. Nonetheless, Ryan Reynolds and Matthew Goode prove to be great counterparts in this hectic ride down the rabbit hole. The other characters add some extra value to this production, but in the end everything gets carried by the three actors mentioned here.
Sadly, for a movie with a decent underlying plotline and concept, there are no extras to be found on this Blu-ray release. Perhaps it would have been fun to explore the concept of ‘shedding’ a bit more, or perhaps some other scientific theories about the overall matter of prolonging life, but unfortunately there is nothing added for further entertainment or even educational purposes. Other than that, even the rather typical extras such as a making of or deleted scenes are nowhere to be found. Overall for this movie it feels a bit like a missed opportunity.
Conclusion
Self/less is actually a very fascinating movie, mostly thanks to its concept. Overall it will be rather captivating to see how Damian copes with his new prolonged life, even if it’s not in his own body. While it would have been nice to see the stellar actor Ben Kingsley receive a bit more screen time, Ryan Reynolds does his best to carry this movie from right after the start to the finish line. If you’re into stories about immortality, this one will certainly be an entertaining movie. For an action flick the action might not reign supreme, but even then, this is one of those movies that is certainly worth a watch, while some aspects might not immediately blow you away.
Self/less (Blu-ray) - Movie Review,
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