TRANSFER (Mongrel, 2010) D: Damir Lukacevic, w/ B.J. Britt, Regine Nehy. Rating: NN DVD package: none Rating: NN
The screenplay bites off more than it can chew and the climax feels perfunctory, but if you like science fiction with more on its mind than eye candy, Transfer offers some passable musings on racism, love, death and identity via the classic mind-transfer premise.
Hermann and Anna are old, rich Europeans. They’re in love and one of them is dying, so they opt to have themselves downloaded into a pair of young, healthy African bodies. Every night while Hermann and Anna sleep, the Africans, Apolain and Sarah, awake to inhabit their own bodies. It’s part of the deal. They’d like out, but the corporation has other ideas.
The sinister corporation and the premise itself are enough to keep the tension moderately high. Otherwise, the visuals and performances are competent and ordinary, with one exception. Mehmet Kurtulus delivers a ton of weird as the corporation’s chief minder, a man perpetually overwhelmed by his emotions.
I didn’t see anything here that made me long for extras.
EXTRAS German, French audio. English subtitles.
