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This movie is being hailed as the first science fiction film from the Czech Republic in four decades. However, it draws just as much inspiration from Minority Report, which also has a similar theme of domestic futurism. The main character, Detective Em Trochinowska, shares similarities with Tom Cruise’s character in Spielberg’s film. She often watches video clips of her deceased husband, a concert pianist who was killed by members of a terrorist group called Rivers of Life. This group is opposed to the use of “restoration” technology, which can bring recently deceased people back to life.
If you don’t regularly clear your inbox, I have some bad news for you: the technology will only function if you have recently uploaded your memories within the past 48 hours. While Minority Report explored the idea of preemptive crime, this is a form of post-crime insurance in a dystopian Mitteleuropean society plagued by violence. Trochinowska is tasked with investigating a double “absolute murder” of a couple who failed to back up their memories: restoration scientist David Kurlstat (Matěj Hádek) and his wife. The head of the institute responsible for creating the technology, tech demigod Rohan (Karel Dobrý), is uncooperative and preoccupied with an upcoming privatization. As a result, there is a strong hint of corruption coming from the imposing, brutalist towers.
Robert Hloz’s first film as a director has impressive visuals, especially considering its modest budget of $2 million. It captures the expected futuristic and dystopian elements with its hyper-metropolis scenes and prevalent use of sleek wearable technology. However, while the interface may be polished, the film lacks its own unique philosophical foundation and relies heavily on borrowed ideas, such as Blade Runner’s exploration of unreliable memory. Hloz attempts to compensate for this with a convoluted plot, involving a Europol agent (played by Václav Neužil) meddling in a fellow detective’s (Trochinowska’s) investigation, and a uniformly intense and stiff acting style. Mohylová, who is meant to be the emotional core of the film, comes across as robotic, but not in a captivating way like Rick Deckard. Despite its admirable effort to match Hollywood’s futuristic settings, Restore Point falls short and feels manufactured.
Source: theguardian.com
