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Hotel Reverie is the third episode of Black Mirror Series 7.
Keyworth Pictures, run by Judith Keyworth (Harriet Walter – Brian And Maggie), is a long-time established movie production company with a huge back catalogue. Hotel Reverie is their best known film, but those were during its glory days.
However, Kimmy (Awkwafina – Jackpot!) has a way to resurrect old films with a modern star, with a program called ReDream. Not the Dreamcast game emulator, but it does make me wonder, will we all be able to make our own movies with Grok or ChatGPT, a year from now? In fact, ReDream certainly sounds similar, but dressed up in even more superfluous words.
Unlike a normal acting role, Brandy (Issa Rae – One Of Them Days) has to lie down in what looks like a fancy tanning bed, but it basically “TRON“s her into the environment, with the other characters assuming she’s real.
In there, she’s taking the romantic lead role in this new version of the film that was previously portrayed by a man, mostly playing opposite Dorothy (Emma Corrin – Nosferatu), a famous actress of the day, although as her character’s called Clara, Brandy will have to make sure she DOESN’T call her Dorothy!
Along the way, as the real-life team comment that various plot points have been completed, it feels like a game of Hitman, when Diana’s told you that you’ve completed your assassintation targets.
However, for Brandy, she can’t play the piano properly, so when that becomes a factor, it sets the story off-course, given that it’s meant to have made Clara choke up with emotion, rather than have an adverse reaction. With similar other scenes not going to plan – compared to the original movie – it reminds me of Back To The Future Part II, where Marty has to recreate elements from the first film, whilst having mistakes and thinking on-the-fly to correct them, except that here, it causes the studio to freak out that things are going wrong.
It also has the feels of Quantum Leap, where Sam’s trying to complete tasks, while needing help from Al, as he’d just speak in reality, and Sam would hear him, wherever he is.
There’s also elements of something else in there, but that would be a massive spoiler if I mentioned it. If you’ve also watched more films and TV series than is good for you, you’ll spot it! 😀
It’s good to see Brief Encounter gets a mention, as that’s one of the best movies from yesteryear that feels like it could’ve been made in the modern era. However, at 76 minutes, Hotel Reverie takes a very long time to get to the point, and could easily be cut down to about 50 minutes, as the in-film part runs way too long – since we’ve already got the point of how it works LONG before ‘Black Mirror-type stuff starts happening – and it doesn’t have a great payoff.
All that said, can Netflix do a similar thing and “TRON” me into all of the Jennifer Aniston romcom movies? That would be great.
As for the presentation, like most episodes in Black Mirror Season 7, the aspect ratio is 2.39:1, except that in this case, the in-film scenes are in 4:3, to mirror a film from that era. However, rather than present the 4:3 scenes with the full height of the 16:9 container available, they’re put within the 2.39:1 ratio. That gives the effect of the real-life scenes switching to wider than the in-film scenes, but since most of the episode is in-film, those scenes are severely windowboxed and didn’t need to be.
Hotel Reverie is now available on Netflix.
Score: 6/10
Widescreen ratio: 2.39:1 / 1.33:1
Director: Haolu Wang
Producer: Susie Liggat
Writer: Charlie Brooker
Music: Ariel Marx
Cast:
Brandy: Issa Rae
Kimmy: Awkwafina
Dorothy: Emma Corrin
Judith Keyworth: Harriet Walter
Ralph Redwell: Enzo Cilenti
Quarterman: Elliot Barnes-Worrell
Ayla: Rebecca Ozer
Claude: Stanley Weber
Inspector Lavigne: Farid Larbi
Jack: Charlie Hiscock
Crystal: Tessa Wong
Dieter: Magnus Bruun
Mika: Danielle Vitalis
Mrs. Roban: Elaine Claxton
Otto: Asheq Akhtar
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.