Imagine having so much money that you can buy a new body if you’re growing old? Just go through a simple procedure of transferring your consciousness into the other body. And there you are, with a new muscular body, fantastic bank balance, and a world to explore. Sounds cool, right? No, it isn’t!
Damian Hale (Ben Kingsley) is a New York-based businessman who has so much money that he just gold-plated his living room just for fun. But money isn’t everything, right? His daughter doesn’t live with him, and he is terminally ill. So, he is kind of worried about his empire. One fine day, he receives a business card from Albright(Matthew Goode) about the shedding treatment. Damian signs up for this not-so-expensive procedure of $250 million.
The procedure is completed, and Damian finds himself in a new healthy body. Although he has to take some pills regularly at the same time to avoid any hallucinations/migraines that can even cause his death.
So, Damian is young again and has all the bank balance he needs to enjoy a lavish life. But, one day, he misses those red pills and realizes that the body given to him is not grown in a lab after getting a series of hallucinations(which felt more like a flashback). This body belongs to a family-man(Ryan Reynolds) who sacrificed his life to afford treatment for his daughter.
Damian plans to meet this person’s family to know the truth. Madeline(Ryan’s Wife) is startled to see him alive and, after a series of conversations, tells Damian the truth she knew. Albright gets to know about all this and sends his team to bring back Damian or eliminate him as he is a threat to their organization.
I think there was a hint of philosophical thought about immortality in Self Less. And realizing this, I was continually looking for it, but it never happened. The director, Tarsem Singh, couldn’t explore this theme properly. But the movie stands up to its Action genre as it has some pretty good action sequels.
At 116 minutes, Self Less is not one of the best works of Ryan Reynolds, It is conceptually wrong at some points, but still, it is watchable. A seemingly different movie from what I usually prefer, but it could have been way better, and this is what makes me recommend it a little “Less”!