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Film: Total Recall

Country: USA/Canada

Year of Release: 2012

Director: Len Wiseman

Screenwriters: Kurt Wimmer, Mark Bomback

Starring: Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel

♥½

Time really does fly. It has now been more than two decades since Arnold Schwarzenegger deadpanned his way through Paul Verhoeven’s accessible, intelligent and beautifully styled science fiction classic Total Recall. Which, in the franchise-obsessed world of Hollywood, means it’s time not for a re-release, but for a remake.

While I didn’t have any real expectations of this reprisal from director Len Wiseman, I was nonetheless interested to see what 21st century updates might be provided courtesy of the digital technology that has blossomed in the last twenty years. The answer, sadly, is that this latest film offers nothing new, and Wiseman has stripped the original film of most of the qualities that it made it so engaging and enjoyable in the first place.

Instead of being set on Mars, the remake is firmly anchored to the planet earth, where, in the wake of global chemical warfare, only two regions remain inhabitable – the United Federation of Britain and a landmass which we know as Australia but which has become The Colony, a marginalised space that provides workers to the Federation. The two regions are connected by “The Fall”, a shuttle system which – ludicrously enough – consists of a tunnel that has been burrowed through the centre of the earth, molten core and all, and which is viewed by residents of the Colony as an instrument of oppression and exploitation.

In this not entirely plausible reality, factory worker Douglas Quaid (Colin Farrell) lives with his beautiful wife (Kate Beckinsale) but is haunted by the nagging feeling that something is missing. When he makes a trip to Rekall – a company that implants false memories in order to make life seem  more fulfilling, Quaid comes to realise that nothing is what it seems. The procedure ends in a hail of government-sponsored gunfire and Quaid, who realise that he has already been implanted with false memories, finds himself on the run.

While the original film was packed with satirical humour, social commentary and pop culture references, the remake is nothing more than an elaborately decorated chase flick adorned with a few technological ideas that are mostly familiar from films such as Blade Runner and Minority Report. While the 1990 version was loosely based on the Philip K Dick story We Can Remember It for You Wholesale, this 21st century version (it’s certainly not an unpdate) is simply “inspired” by it, although inspired isn’t really the most appropriate choice of words given how lacklustre the film is.

Still, the chase is reasonably entertaining for most of the film’s screen time, but only as a chase and not really as a movie. It’s not stretching the truth to say that Total Recall 2012 is pretty much like a video-game, and, like most video games, the point is not the anticlimactic ending but the adrenal thrill in getting there. Curiously, considering the vast amount of money spent on Total Recall, the film is singularly uncinematic. While it borrows wholesale from Blade Runner, it contains not a single moment of beauty, not a single shot that allows space for contemplation. While director Len Wiseman is clearly a fan of Ridley Scott’s masterpiece, he seems to miss the fact that Blade Runner – both filmically and narratively – was actually about beauty, and spiritual beauty at that, even in the absence of a soul.

If Wiseman’s film did, however, pause for thought, you’d notice that Verhoeven’s original concept-rich narrative, which made the first Total Recall such a delight, is entirely missing. Quaid has indeed been implanted with false memories, but once the film makes this point – in a particularly laboured manner courtesy of Farrel’s disbelieving (although not really believable) facial expressions – it moves on to its smorgasbord of relentless action.

The film isn’t helped by the fact that Farrell isn’t much of an actor. Of course this was also the case with Schwarzenegger in the first Total Recall – and also Keanu Reeves in the Matrix series. But acting ability isn’t always necessary with strong direction, and both Schwarzenegger and Reeves have that thing called presence. Farrel has only a weak smile, reasonable looks and a buffish body (which he spends the film’s opening scenes keeping taut, rather than concentrating on his performance).

Farrel is kept company in the poor acting brigade by Beckinsale, as well as Jessica Biel and a number of other actors who should know better. That said, all the acting in the world wouldn’t redeem a film that is entirely empty at its molten core.