Going to the theater to see the remake of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 1990 sci-fi thriller Total Recall, my brain was trying to dissect what differences there might be in the filming. The film’s premise is that a “normal,” worker bee type named Doug (Colin Farrell, this time) attempts to have himself outfitted with spicier memories through a pay-for-implants company and instead unlocks a series of hidden memories where he is really a Resistance-level spy. Would the movie end the same? Would we have the same dialogue about what truth is? Would it be as amusing, and entertaining?
First things first. This one isn’t nearly as clever in its witty repartee. Maybe that’s Farrell, but I usually think of him as pretty witty (In Bruges, anyone?). On the other hand, he goes through the motions a bit, like he’s seen something like this before (Minority Report, another Philip K. Dick story). But the action is fast-paced, even if it’s almost all CGI, as Farrell’s Doug pingpongs back and forth between his evil wife Lori (Kate Beckinsale) and the Resistance fighter Melina (Jessica Biel). In the entertainment value, they ramp up the action, even if all of the plot points don’t hold up.
Brian Cranston takes a turn as the evil dictator here, but the dialogue about truth and memories is mostly situated between Doug and various other characters, including his work colleague, played by Bokeem Woodbine. We’re dealing with Plato’s cave here a bit: what is truth, what is the truth being projected, and what is our understanding of the truth (as an interpretation). Dick’s stories have always asked great questions but ultimately, Farrell’s Doug finds himself choosing between exploring the past or embracing the present reality, and, of course, he does that well.
I was intrigued by the Resistance’s mantra that “the Fall holds us down, truth sets us free” (or some facsimile). The Fall here is a form of reverse gravity transportation between the main territory and the Colony (what the Resistance is defending, like the Rebels versus Stormtroopers). But from a Judeo-Christian perspective, the Fall is (broadly) the separation of humanity from God based on choices made by Adam and Eve that led to their removal from the Garden of Eden. The Biblical Fall holds us down, too, or would have permanently, if not for the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, which liberates us from that condemnation. Every time the mantra played throughout the movie, my mind was drawn to that parallel Biblically, but it wasn’t the only time.
Doug gets mentally loosed by Bill Nighy’s compassionate Resistance leader but Cranston’s baddie is slugging it out of him at one point and he splashes down into a pool of water. Rising up out of it, he finally starts giving it back to him, and Doug says, “I’ll live in the present.” The visual of the baptism splashdown, and the rising, freed from the doubts of which memories in his head were really his, to fight for the Resistance, was pretty powerful. Overall, those were two of the strongest images in the movie, and I’m sure others will find additional points of inspiration as well.
Total Recall circa 2012 is probably not better than the first one, but that doesn’t mean that Dick’s story and Farrell’s delivery won’t provide audiences with the opportunity for some summer entertainment, and some sci-fi wonderings about our place in the world.
August 5th, 2012 at 2:26 am
I had a bad feeling about this one when I heard about it,and chose to take a pass(as I also chose not to see DARK KNIGHT RISES).
Wisest decisions I’ve made so far this year.
Sequels and remakes rarely measure up to the originals,as the producers always seem to forget(sometimes consciously)what made the original so good in the first place.
This version actually made the original look better by comparison,as is the case with many other remakes too numerous to mention here.