Wealthy businessman Damian Hale (Ben Kingsley) is dying. He's estranged from his daughter Claire. Upon dying, he receives an experimental procedure from Albright (Matthew Goode) to transfer his consciousness into Mark Caguioa (Ryan Reynolds). He expected a lab raised body but he starts to recover memories which leads to Mark's wife Madeline (Natalie Martinez) and their daughter. Albright sends henchman Anton (Derek Luke) to take back Damian.

This has a pretty interesting premise but the execution doesn't have the thrills or any tension. It's too flat for too long at the beginning. Ryan Reynolds' performance doesn't match Ben Kingsley. When the action starts, I'm not locked onto the character. It's surprising to realize the director is Tarsem Singh. His signature visual style is completely missing. His storytelling is still problematic. The idea for this movie holds some potential but Singh is not up to the task.

I just could not get into this film. Ben Kingsley is a man who has been dealt a cruel hand. He is dying of cancer which diminishes the importance of his millions of dollars. He makes a deal with a secret group to go through a process called "shedding," i.e., having his brain transplanted into what he thinks is an artificial body. Of course, we know he will do this. When he dies, his essence is placed in a buff young guy's body. Of course, now there are endless possibilities, but what he does, mostly, is play pick-up basketball. One day, he has a hallucination, or so he thinks. He sees a former self and he comes to realize that the body he inhabits is that of an actual person. Now everything interesting falls apart. It becomes a search for a daughter and wife with the evil scientists after them. I've seen this kind of stuff a million times. The ending is also about as contrived in pathetic as one can imagine.

Tarsem Singh came to prominence as the director of REM's music video for Losing my religion.

His debut film The Cell was strong on visuals but weak on narrative and a lead actress.

In Self/less Ben Kingsley is a wealthy mogul Damian. He has terminal cancer but wealthy enough to go through a cutting edge procedure where his consciousness is moved to a healthier body. A process known as shredding.

Damian is led to believe that the new body has been grown in a lab. Part of the process is that he must give up his old life and start with a new identity. New Damian (Ryan Reynolds) moves to New Orleans and pretty soon he is living live with his younger self to the full.

However he has flashbacks which makes him have doubts to the origin of his new body. He has to take pills to suppress this and to complete the transference of the mind which can take several months.

New Damian tries to uncover the origin of these flashbacks, he discovers that the host body had a previous life and not grown in a lab.

Pretty soon the people behind this medical procedure are out to get him. It is a good job that the original host was in the army.

The film starts slow with the Ben Kingsley segment. It is as Singh wants to infuse the film with visual tricks and has aspiration to make an art house action thriller.

The plot has been done before, Anthony Hopkins in Freejack who wanted a younger man's body and had Mick Jagger as his chief henchman to Face/Off and Total Recall.

Just as you are about to nod off, Kingsley makes way for Ryan and the film shifts gears. Now Reynolds reminds you nothing of Kingsley's character but at least once Reynolds discover that the host body had a past life, this becomes very much a generic action film albeit an entertaining one and Reynolds is just the right man to mix action with some pathos and even some tenderness here and there.

It is all so predictable but good fun when the action scenes start. Singh pulls of some visual trickery in a restraint manner but this is a movie that looks like the producers re-cut the final film. Maybe it is better for it.