Total Recall

Rating: Null/10 (7 March 2017)

Pursued by unknown enemies, a worried amnesiac tries to remember who he is and why he has such sharp reflexes in this action thriller yarn. As the protagonists discovers a stash of fake passports, each with his photograph, and as police agencies seem to track his every move, the film has a decent dose of mysteriousness. The action sequences are well filmed and memorable too, with a scene in which lead actor Matt Damon scales a large wall and a sequence in which he has to allude an assassin (played by Clive Owen) in some cornfields standing out in particular. Clocking in at around two hours though, the film sometimes feels bloated with a lot of a cutaway sequences in which military types debate what to do about Damon; while these add exposition, they also subtract from the immediacy of the action. A heavily foreshadowed romance between Damon and Franka Potente, who gives him a ride, further distracts from the central plot and Damon's personal identity crisis is hardly all that juicy. The film is all about Damon embracing his old identity as opposed to something like 'Total Recall', which is about attempting to deflect from what one once was. That said, the eventual revelation of how Damon lost his memory comes with much bite with a haunting, near-silent scene on a luxury yacht at night. Damon's increasing anxiety at not being able to get answers comes across well too with some very good scenes in which he dials up various numbers asking for his names on his various passports in the desperate hope of some clue.