Self/less is a sci-fi thriller that revisits several familiar cinematic tropes, from the quest for immortality to Faustian deals, while posing philosophical questions about money, ethics and medicine. The mishmash unfortunately falls flat, hampered by a weak script and some unusually wooden onscreen moments from usually excellent actors.
Written by brothers Alex and David Pastor, and directed by Tarsem Singh (The Cell, Immortals), Self/less opens with the quandary of billionaire industrialist Damian Hale (Ben Kingsley): “The man who built New York”—according to a Time headline—is dying of cancer. Not yet ready to give up his cutthroat businessman lifestyle, Damian is offered the chance to undergo a secretive medical procedure called “shedding” that transfers his consciousness into another younger, synthetic body (Ryan Reynolds).
Dr. Albright (Matthew Goode) warns that the process is costly, both financially and physically, but Damian has nothing to lose. He is, after all, another lonely rich man estranged from his activist daughter, Claire (Michelle Dockery), and has only one friend/business partner in Martin O’Neil (Victor Garber). Damian agrees to be reincarnated as Reynolds and begins a new life in New Orleans as “Edward.” He tests out his new body with lots of excess: drinking, exercise, sex, and an obscene amount of peanut butter (Damian was allergic to peanuts, Edward is not). Despite the success of the transfer, Edward suffers from hallucinations that can only be controlled by medicine provided by Albright. When he misses a dose, his mind is overcome with images and moments of a single mother and her daughter; the scenes from another life are almost too much to bear.
At this point in the film, Self/less shifts from science fiction to a mystery. It eventually ends as a shoot-’em-up action movie, with Edward trying to redeem his old and new lives. Reynolds tackles the three genres competently, especially the fight and action sequences, but we don’t see the ruthlessness or the aloofness in Kingsley’s Damian 1.0. The characters look and act too differently to believe they’re essentially the same person. This distinction is especially evident in the latter half of the film as Edward risks his own new life for an unknown man’s family when Damian barely spoke to his own daughter.