1 ½ stars (out of four)
In the distant future, chemical warfare has left Earth
uninhabitable in all but two regions: the United Federation of Britain and
Australia (known now as the Colony). The UFB is your run-of-the-mill dystopia:
a bustling high-tech metropolis plagued by overpopulation and the terrorist
attacks of a rebel anarchist group. An ominous Chancellor named Cohaagen (Bryan
Cranston) rules the nation, his giant face projected on TV screens throughout
the city as he addresses his citizens.
Fear not, he says. To counter the increase in terrorist
bombings he will increase the size of the synthetic police force – an army of
sleek, faceless robots carrying automatic weapons. Something tells me the
Chancellor doesn’t have the people’s best interests in mind when he announces
this.
Meanwhile, the citizens of the Colony live in comparative
squalor. The streets of its drab concrete cities are brightened only by neon
signs (in a shrewdly prescient touch, Chinese letters always accompany English).
The Colony always seems to be overcast and rainy too, a meteorological
curiosity I might have liked explained.
It is here that Douglas Quaid (a sleepy Colin Farrell) calls
home. He works at a factory in the UFB where he builds those synthetic police
officers. He commutes there daily with his buddy (Bokeem Woodbine) via a
fascinating innovation in transportation called The Fall. The Fall is a
“gravity elevator,” a sort of train that zooms down into the ground, past the
Earth’s core and back up to the surface on the opposite side of the globe.
Halfway through the trip, gravity reverses and passengers momentarily float in
their harnesses. (This comes in handy later during the film’s best action
scene.)
In the future there is also Rekall, a company that offers
customers the opportunity to plant fabricated memories inside their minds. The
memory can be anything you like – a passionate affair, a luxurious vacation, a
stint as an international spy – and Quaid thinks he might like to try the spy
fantasy.
But before the Rekall attendant – a slick, white-haired and
wonderfully goofy looking John Cho – can start the procedure, the cops bust in
to arrest Quaid. What do they want with him? Is this all a Rekall memory? Or
was his old life an illusion created by a past trip to Rekall?
Next thing Quaid knows, he is on the run from the law and
has gotten two beautiful ladies caught up in his newly complicated life. There
is Lori (Kate Beckinsale), Quaid’s wife of seven years who may be more than she
initially seems, and Melina (Jessica Biel), a member of the rebellion who
claims she already knows Quaid. To Melina, however, he is a man named Carl
Hauser.
Most of this should be familiar to anyone who has seen the
1990 Total Recall starring Arnold
Schwarzenegger (both this film and that one are based on the Philip K. Dick
short story, “We Remember It for You Wholesale”). But it is not familiarity
that sinks this movie. (In a year that saw successful revamps of 21 Jump Street and Spider-Man, why not this too?)
The premise is intriguing and the set design impressive but
the script by Kurt Wimmer and Mark Bomback is awful. It rushes through the set-up and then wastes time in the
middle. The dialogue is clunky and utilitarian; characters speak in exposition
or they don’t speak at all. Total Recall
begins as hard sci-fi but devolves into mindless action. It needs to choose; it
can’t have it both ways. (On second thought, Christopher Nolan’s Inception did exactly that. Hm.)
The three leads – Mr. Farrell, Ms. Beckinsale and Ms. Biel –
all have the dazed look of actors on a greenscreen. What a shame. Colin Farrell
can be such an energetic and dynamic presence. Why, if you cast him in this
movie, would you have him play such a muted and humorless character? Director
Len Wiseman should have let him loose, popped a cigarette in his mouth and
allowed him to speak in his foul-mouthed brogue. The movie would have come
alive.
There is one actor who gets it right. Bryan Cranston, in a
limited role, makes for a great antagonist. Late in the film he delivers a
monologue explaining the whole knotty plot. I didn’t understand a word of what
he was talking about but I couldn’t take my eyes off him. During that chase
scene with the hover cars? I was checking my watch.
- Steve Avigliano, 8/11/12
