I really think he deserves better, because this guy has incredible presence and this charisma that instantly elevates anything he is in. Mark Strong tries his hardest, but even he can't save this character. The fact that you end up think he's an idiot is a really bad sign. You're not supposed to think this at all, you're supposed to think that he wasn't emotionally prepared for the demand, and the stress, the job offered due to his past. I realize he was emotionally broken from his wife's death and subsequent heart attack when his memories interjected themselves in another person's memory, but he's still supposed to be one of the top memory detectives in the country and he can't see what this girl's doing? He must not have been that good at all. The fact that you think your main character, the driving force of the film, even though it's really Anna, is an absolute idiot is not particularly strong character development. She doesn't care who she uses as long as she gets something out of it. John comes across as an absolute idiot for not being able to see through Anna's manipulative narcissistic ways. This would be a good idea if the character was well-written, but he's not. Since he couldn't prevent his wife's suicide, he sure as shit can try his hardest to protect Anna. Because of that tragedy in his past, John is more susceptible to Anna's manipulations. I didn't notice it until now, but it's really a shameless ripoff, at least in that respect. John, having lost his wife to suicide because she couldn't function happily in the real world, directly stolen from Inception as Leo's wife, after spending all her time in the dream world, can't adjust to what her reality is.
She does this by manipulating her own memories to change the actual events that John sees. The memories do come into play in the story, as you get to see how Anna manipulates John into believing one thing when another happens. There's not that much time devoted into how the entire Mindscape thing came to be, other than the obligatory exposition at the beginning. That's really all the purpose it serves, because this, pretty much, follows the same formula you've grown accustomed to throughout the years. In a way, this is just used to get from point A to point B in a way that's different from the norm. While this film is more a thriller than it is a sci-fi film, you'd think that they'd use the sci-fi aspects to a better effect than they do here. But, in my opinion, this is just an incredibly bland and uninteresting film that wastes an incredibly talented cast. Then again, I don't think its inspirations should have any real bearings on how good this film is, or not. Considering the films that inspired it, you'd think this film would be better. This has traces of Minority Report and Inception in there. This is a concept that's been used in the sci-fi genre for eons now, it seems. This film has an interesting, if not particularly unique, concept.