[Film Review] Plurality (2021)

High-concept, genre-spanning films can be a true delight: using different cinematic conventions to subvert the audience’s expectations and creating something new and innovative. But it’s a narrative gamble that doesn’t always pay off - unfortunately it can just result in a story that falls into the tropes of multiple genres, rather than just the one. 

Plurality is an ambitious mix of crime thriller, near-future sci-fi and psychological horror; exploring the possibilities and dangers of medical science enabling consciousness to transcend death. The film starts in the midst of a spate of child kidnappings, the latest being the son of a prominent congressman. The police suspect that someone responsible was among several passengers on a bus that crashes, killing all on board. At a bio-technology institute, Dr Shen Yi Ling uses an experimental method of consciousness transfer to upload the minds of all the casualties into the brain of a comatose death row inmate, Chen Guang-Xuan. As the police interrogate the various suspects and discover the location of the kidnapped children, a tense battle for control of the single brain ensues, and each consciousness begins to suspect that none of the others are telling the whole truth.  

The most engaging element of the film is the way in which it visualises the subconscious shared by the various characters as a physical space. It is shown as a surreal, garishly-lit alternate version of the clinically-white, minimalist institute, with each of the uploaded minds in their own hospital rooms. A pulsating door of red neon bars acts as a portal to the level of full consciousness, whereby any of the minds can gain control of the shared body. It is in this space that some of the more effective scenes of the film occur, as the tensions between the different characters play out, and information is revealed that remains hidden from the characters in the real world.   

Although the technological implausibility’s of consciousness-uploading are presented believably, Plurality unfortunately comes unstuck in its handling of more run-of-the-mill plotting. Although it is framed as a police procedural, little time is given to the actual business of investigating, and little effort is made to give it a sense of realism. Although a major plot point, it’s not clear why the police are sure that the kidnapper was on this particular bus, and this remains a mystery to the end. The police seem either hyper-efficient (checking vast amounts of CCTV extremely quickly) or horribly incompetent (recklessly endangering a child’s life). The narrative feels generally spread too thin, unable to give enough weight to any one aspect.

A plot twist involving the character we have been following through most of the film reveals that he had in the past committed a heinous crime, but this fact is oddly hand-waved away by the film. We’re invited to continue feeling sympathy for him, the writers suddenly introducing another character who is unequivocally monstrous, seemingly to enable the audience to still relate to the protagonist, even though he has now been revealed to be something of a monster himself. Because of this the last act of the film feels jarring, the audience left with few options for any relatable characters.  

Plurality does show admirable ambition in its blend of genres and visual flair, but ultimately fails to live up to the promise of its concept. Worse, though, is the attempt to continue eliciting the viewer’s sympathy for the protagonist even after the revelation about his crimes, which feels distinctly manipulative, and sours the overall experience of the film. 

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