MINDSCAPE is a rather routine sci-fi thriller that pays obvious nods to previous movies like INCEPTION and PAPERHOUSE. The main character is a kind of psychological detective who, through the MacGuffin of near-future technology, is able to enter into the head of participants and observe their memories playing out.

It's a rather familiar premise and one they don't really do much with , despite best intentions. I appreciated the film's low key atmosphere and the occasional scene of brooding tension, and Mark Strong is a pleasure to watch as an actor, as always. But it's the script that falls down here and ends up being a lot less than the sum of its parts. The pacing is slow and there's an almost entire lack of incident, and by the end it just fizzles into a near-zero stakes game which didn't interest me whatsoever.

It's a pity, as a decent supporting cast (Noah Taylor, Indira Varma, Brian Cox) and a good performance from the fresh-faced Taissa Farmiga (sister of Vera) add up to not much at all.

Memory detectives have the ability to enter their client's memories. The largest memory detective agency is Mindscape run by Sebastian (Brian Cox). John Washington (Mark Strong) is one of the best but he had a break down. He needs the money and returns for another job. Sebastian gives him the supposed easy case of gifted Anna Greene (Taissa Farmiga) who refuses to eat. Her mother Michelle (Saskia Reeves) and stepfather Robert (Richard Dillane) are one of the richest family. Judith (Indira Varma) monitors Anna 24/7. As John dives into her memories, it becomes questionable what is the real truth.

I like the overall paranoid feel. However there seems to be some easier detective work that could provide proof outside of his memory work. I keep thinking that there are missing pieces or avenues in the movie. I don't know why John is not more suspicious of Anna. The final scheme is so convoluted and specific that it's unlikely to work out exactly like that. The writing by the Holmes need a few more passes and maybe by a fresh pair of eyes. Jorge Dorado is trying to step up to the big director's chair and delivers a workmanlike effort. Taissa Farmiga is intriguing and Strong is effective. However the script is not quite right. The idea itself is not particularly new but I do like the Hitchcockian feel. The final twist is obvious before the reveal but I still like it. The movie could be much better.

Anna, or Mindscape as the original title goes, rides heavily on the presence and acting capabilities of its two main leads, Mark Strong as John, a psychologist with mind reading abilities, and Taissa Farmiga as Anna, his young and eerily disturbed patient. The film itself revolves around the idea that certain humans have developed their latent psychic abilities to such a degree that they can read the minds of others and thus help them overcome traumas and illnesses of the mind. Yeah, it's a bit Inception-esque, but it's different enough in style and atmosphere that you won't mind.

Still, the best part about this film is Mark Strong. His quiet dignified performance holds almost all of the scenes together and his interactions with Farmiga are very interesting to witness. Farmiga's performance suffers a touch from her relative inexperience, at least compared to Strong. You can definitely tell that she's acting in the earlier scenes, but she gets better quickly and her character as a whole nails the eery wonder child trope.

Plot-wise the film is nothing special, being relatively easy to predict and offering no real twists, but it's more of a moodpiece in any case. I would have liked for the actual mindscape scenes to be a bit more creative and the story as a whole to be a bit more overreaching in scope, but those lacks only mean that the film is merely good instead of great.

Mindscape is worth a watch if you're looking for a thriller with a more thoughtful tone and lacking in excessive brutality and gore.