Surrogates

Directed by Jonathan Mostow
Script by Michael Ferris & John Brancato based on a graphic novel by Robert Venditti & Brett Weldele
88 minutes 2009

Bruce Willis plays Tom Greer
Radha Mitchell plays Jennifer Peters
James Cromwell plays Cantor
Ving Rhames plays the Prophet

Country of finance: US
Nationality of director: US
Location of story: Boston
Filming location: Boston and other towns in Massachusetts.

Did you watch the Matrix films and wonder why no-one had an other-gender body inside the Matrix?  This film does not leave that aspect unexplored.

Instead of a virtual reality Matrix, most people in this film have a surrogate that is a younger, better looking version of themselves.  They send the surrogate out to work and play, and they themselves stay at home in a high-tech chair that allows them to see, hear and feel whatever happened to the surrogate.

A young woman in a skimpy dress is murdered at the beginning of the film.  The surrogate cops, Greer and Peters chase up her operator, and find an overweight middle-aged man.  An attractive young black man is shown by his ID card to be really a middle-aged white man.

Peters’ surrogate is at first operated by the real Jennifer Peters.  Later the real one is killed, and the Peters surrogate is being operated by the bad guy.   Greer has to get himself inside the Peters surrogate so that he can save the world.

To put it simply:  The Bruce Willis character save the world while in this body. 

In conclusion: a middlebrow sex-transfer fantasy for those who do fantasize other-gender bodies, but never actually do it in reality.    This aspect is generally not being mentioned in the reviews.