We made from water every living thing.

In this manner even the gods give special honor to zeal and courage in concerns of love. But Orpheus, son of Oeagrus, they sent back with failure from Hades, showing him only a wraith of the woman for whom he came; her real self they would not bestow, for he was accounted to have gone upon a coward’s quest, too like the minstrel that he was, and to have lacked the spirit to die as Alcestis did for the sake of love, when he contrived the means of entering Hades alive. Wherefore they laid upon him the penalty he deserved, and caused him to meet his death. ~ Plato, Symposium

The recent movie Reminiscence is a retelling of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. Nick Bannister, played by Hugh Jackman, runs a service that vividly recalls his clients’ memories. It recreates the film noir style with the cynical antihero, including voiceovers that reveal his inner thoughts, and, of course, the alluring femme fatale, Mae, played by Rebecca Ferguson. Like its black and white predecessor, this film relies on dream-like states, understated eroticism, ambivalent morals, and cruelty.

The story begins a few years into the future when, due to climate change, the streets of Miami are flooded, with sections navigable like a new Venice. The wealthy are ensconced on the few areas of high ground.

At closing time, Mae shows up at Nick’s establishment asking for a session so she can remember where she had lost her keys. Mae is like a Naiad who emerges from the waters of life and Nick is immediately infatuated. The next evening, he goes to the night club where Mae is a torch singer. He is entranced by her melancholy love songs and tells her so at the end of her set. She replies, “In four years, you are the only man who noticed me for my singing and not for my beauty.”

Thus begins their romantic relationship. Mae asks Nick to tell her a story, but he retorts cynically, “Stories don’t have happy endings.”

She responds, hopefully, “Then tell me a story but end it in the middle.”

The middle comes all too soon when Mae disappears without a word. Through a chance encounter with the relived memories of a criminal, Nick is able to trace Mae back to a night club in New Orleans. Nick then embarks on a trip to the underworld of crime and drugs. There he encounters the underworld boss Saint Joe, who kept Mae as his mistress and got her addicted to “baca”.

This led to a confrontation that would have led to Nick’s death, had not his business partner Watts, who was secretly in love with him, arrived to rescue him. Unlike Orpheus, Nick was willing to die for his love rather than to be alone without her.

But the Fates cannot be mocked. Dejected because he believed that Mae’s love was false, he needs to find out more. He learns that Mae was working with Boothe, a “fixer” and ex-cop to dispose of the mistress and bastard son of a wealthy landowner. Nick tracks down Boothe, subdues him, and hooks him up to his memory machine.

He then learns the truth about Mae’s involvement and how she tried to protect the illegitimate heir. He also discovers that Mae truly did love him. She plays out a scene with Boothe, knowing that Nick would somehow find out, in which she pledges her love to Nick. Nick is, of course, thrilled to learn that although it is too late.

The legend is that Eurydice in Hades was only a shade, a mere image of the real woman. That thought, that doubt, led Orpheus to look back. The truth sent her back to the underworld.

Likewise Nick hooks himself up to his memory machine so that he can re-experience his memories of Mai, over and over for the rest of his life. Yet Mae is forever merely a shade, a shadowy image in his mind.

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