Hallucinatory love sci-fi

Rating: 8/10 (23 March 2004)

Take the memory clearing idea of Paycheck, mix in the ambience of Vanilla Sky (excluding the soundtrack, which is very different), and give it a Valentine's day romance and you have this film. If, for some reason, that sounds negative, it is not intended to be. The result is a rare beast. To put it in crude, simple terms, it's a geek movie that's a chick flick.
I.e., science fiction meets tear-jerker love story. And, somehow, it works.
The science could improve. It drops into B-movie devices when it comes to the memory clearing hardware. Outside of that, it makes the whole system seem like a believable medical procedure that could evolve with a few technological advances. The human motivation is definitely there, and the film gets a couple of its funniest scenes from focusing on the various people and situations that land them in the doctor's office.
The joy, and most of the story, of the film revolves around the problems that arise. The director wraps it in a thoughtful, hallucinatory package that adds suspense as well. Finally, all of it is held together by characters that are all well-acted.