Mauro Borrelli
The Recall

After a whole day of work, one must admit that the prospect of watching Wesley Snipes kick the usual alien invaders from deep space is a big draw for anyone. This is essentially the sole reason that drove me to watch this film in which I clearly had no expectations other than the one mentioned, which was ultimately unmet, because to be completely honest, I must tell you that - even though he usually expresses his badass nature - the opportunities to see Wes in action here are reduced to a minimum. "The Recall" (a joint production between Canada and the United States of America) is one of those typical films where the aliens are present (oh yes, they are) but you don't see them, or at least you don't see any of them acting actively and significantly. Yet, according to a definite and acclaimed extensive series of productions of this kind, especially since the renewal of the genre's aesthetics in the Eighties (it's impossible to underestimate the massive influence of Stephen King, like it or not his literature has been as influential as few others in sci-fi and horror genres), they are there and we clearly perceive their presence through the protagonists' terror. Which is our same terror: after all, what's more frightening than something we don't see? If you put me face to face with a lion, rest assured that this one will scare me less than an unknown alien presence, even if only supposed, but although motionless, still considered in some way a threat.

The film is directed by Mauro Borrelli. The story? The protagonists, apart from "The Hunter" (our Wesley Snipes), are a group of youngsters, five of them, including two couples and a fifth friend with an atypical personality, shy and interested in video recordings. A combo that is practically a typical genre cliché, especially if we then take these five and place them spending a weekend by the lake, where they will first be surprised by an encounter with a mysterious and aggressive character who seems not to appreciate their presence, and then by a strange and inexplicable meteorological event, which will force them not to return to their homes and which will later reveal to be one of the anomalies and manifestations due to the alien presence.

What we discover as we go further into the film is that our "Hunter" has some unfinished business with the aliens, the nature of which is never revealed and whose reasons remain somewhat a mystery until the end of the film, which is certainly more of a high-tension sci-fi thriller (for his limited role, Wesley Snipes is fine, even though he has clearly lost the shine and brilliance - proven also in the acting field - we used to recognize him for), but which also unconvincingly revisits the theme of the origin of the human race (kind of like "Prometheus" or even "Stargate") but also that of evolution and how every living species renews itself over time, acquiring new abilities and possibilities while losing others. An interesting theme that makes one think of that typical balance in the human genre that sees on one side reason and on the other instinct, and which leans more and more towards the former, at the expense of a component (which still remains strong in our subconscious) that many already regret now. But also to phenomena that occur in the natural world: elephants are born without tusks to escape ivory hunters. But can you really define an elephant without tusks as an elephant? How much has it lost and how much does it gain by no longer having one of its typical and fundamental components? Probably only history will be able to answer all these questions because evolution, in the end, is as if it were a continuous system of choices at a collective level, and these can be right and they can be wrong. Or perhaps neither. Because there is no supreme entity (even admitting the existence of any kind of divinity) that can pass a judgment in this sense.