A not-so-brave new world and the prospect that your mortality is covered by the potential of a clone that could love your family a lot more than you ever did forms the basis of the new futuristic virtual sci-fi drama LX2048.
In the year 2048 (naturally!), dying businessman Adam Bird (James D’Arcy) is out to save his own company from going out of business due to the fact that virtual technology is being potentially ousted in favour of chip technology. It is a world where the ozone layer has failed and people wear hazmat suits alfresco to get around. Tube-based transportation speeds about the city vistas. Virtual is all-but-real, if you get our drift and the potential for avatar and clone technology is the norm.
Having a virtual affair with a virtual girlfriend is the tip of the iceberg for Adam’s problems, given that his wife Reena (Anna Brewster) has discovered him in a compromising position when his kids are all connected to the virtual world. Reena has put a restraining order on him and banned him from seeing his kids, but he is determined given his fatal condition to try and make things better.
Complicating his situation even further is that the creator of the chip technology, Donald Stein (Delroy Lindo) , has come into Adam’s life a little resentful of the fact and reveals that taking early retirement from his company when he was ousted was due to the fact that he used state funds to go one step further than anyone could have gone. When Reena offers Adam the chance to make things right by signing away his life in favour of a clone that will be a lot better for her, Adam suddenly has to face up to the potential of positive living….
The themes within LX2048 are more-than-familiar to audiences with the likes of AVATAR, EX MACHINA, MINORITY REPORT and TOTAL RECALL, but the film is refreshingly more grounded as a film that focuses on the emotional cause and effect of a world that has become ever more reliant on the tech and virtuality of a much more pristine existence. What raises the game is the performances from D’Arcy and Brewster who invest a more thoughtful approach to these themes that have been used in favour of a more action-minded gung-ho approach by directors like Paul Verhoeven and Steven Spielberg.
At one point, David Cronenberg was attached to what became the Arnold Schwarzenegger version of TOTAL RECALL, until personal circumstances caused him to withdraw from the project during its’ years of development. One suspects that his version would have been closer to what we see here. That said, that is not to begrudge the efforts of the film-makers and cast here, as LX2048 is a rewarding and thought-provoking experience that should make you question your own mindset and beliefs.
