Total Recall

I had forgotten how good Total Recall (more Paul Verhoeven) is, or perhaps I had not been alert to its double structure on past viewings. For the case that it was all a sophisticated self-covering memory in which something went wrong, there is some troubling evidence - how would they make money if there was supposed to be a full refund? For the case that it is all real, the intervention at the beginning and at the midpoint in which 'Recall' staffmembers give plot summaries that anticipate events uncannily. This amplifies the tension because instead of coherent mutually exclusive accounts, each is slightly incoherent at points where the other story would make it very plausible. I'm not sure, but it seems very like Philip K Dick. A blurb on neuromancer praises William Gibson's Dickian vertigo, but really, no one can do it like Dick.

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