“A Scanner Darkly”




 

 



Directedby:Richard Linklater
Starring: Keanu Reeves,
Robert Downey Jr., Winona
Ryder, Woody Harrelson, Rory
Cochrane
M

AA rating:R (for sexual
content, adult language, drug
use)
Rnningtime:101 minutes
Best sited for: avant-
gardists, surrealists, graphic-
novelists, stoners
Least sited for: those de-
siring sufficient forward mo-
mentum

Philip K. Dick (1928-1982) is one of sci-fi film’s most prolific contributors. With at least seven novels and short stories adapted for the silver screen, his futurist vision has been the inspiration for efforts such as “Minority Report,” “Paycheck,” “Total Recall,” “Imposter,” “Screamers” and Ridley Scott’s classic “Blade Runner.” The soon-to-be-released “Golden Man” is also a Philip K. Dick original concept.

But, much like Ian Fleming’s James Bond franchise, the best adventures are usually the first snatched up by Hollywood-the others eventually left to loose interpretation or pot-luck chances by studios hoping to attract an audience by reputation alone.

Unfortunately, “A Scanner Darkly” fits into the latter category. It’s a dark, albeit trippy, cautionary tale with a good cast and a cinematic gimmick-an animation technique called interpolated rotoscoping-that might merit viewing for some but will prove too distracting for others.

Rotoscoping is a post-filming process of animating an actor’s on-screen performance, i.e., taking actual, digitally-filmed footage and transforming those images into an animated, and often surreal, resemblance of reality. In one sense it is Hollywood’s closest representation of dynamically re-creating the essence of a comic book adventure-although in this day and age of more advanced CGI technology, is such a process truly innovative?

There are those who will view the rotoscoping process and this film as a milestone, no doubt hailing it as a cult classic. (Linklater formerly used the process in his existential, and far more clever, “Waking Life.”) Yet to gauge a film’s merit, one must determine whether the same film would have succeeded in traditional form. Plot-wise, “A Scanner Darkly” meanders, often plodding and occasionally confusing. It lacks the legs to successfully go the distance.

Keanu Reeves-or rather, his animated likeness-is Bob Arctor, an undercover drug agent on the trail of Substance-D, a new and dangerous mind-altering drug. In the near future, each agent’s identity is hidden beneath a head-to-toe “scramble suit” that continually mutates into the holographic likenesses of a multitude of people-a virtual, nonstop kaleidoscope of faces. (What, the feds out of ski masks?) Interestingly enough, Arctor must shield his true identity even from his fellow agents. In the near future, government surveillance on ordinary folk is clearly routine and accepted. Big Brother is watching.

Attempting to track down the source of Substance-D, Arctor (sans-scramble suit) manages to infiltrate a group of users. Robert Downey Jr. and Woody Harrelson portray two of the drug’s avid consumers, and their comedic relief contributes to many of the film’s highlights. Before it destroys your mind, Substance-D makes one jovial and witty, in a paranoia-inducing sort of way.

Arctor has been persuaded to imbibe the drug himself, and after ingesting too much Substance-D, his personality begins to “separate”; he can no longer effectively deduce reality from delusion. And when Arctor’s own agency fails to come to his aid, conspiracy theories begin to abound. Just who is Arctor? Is he an agent at all? Is he being thrown to the wolves for some more “useful” purpose by the feds? Are the feds somehow involved in the drug’s production? As Arctor’s delusions escalate, we are sucked down into the realm of his disintegrating mental stability.

While rotoscoping might have made a considerable difference had it been used more liberally, its potential goes largely, inexplicably ignored here- largely confined to re-creating the continually altering scramble suit-and frankly, that effect eventually wears thin. There are few other special effects utilized.

Had the process been used more abundantly in, say, illuminating Arctor’s increasingly hallucinogenic state of mind, “A Scanner Darkly” may have considerably improved. Even “Mary Poppins” successfully infused animation as an alternate reality, and one can only wonder how more impressive such mindbending films like “Altered States” or “The Serpent and the Rainbow” might have been utilizing this process. But in “A Scanner Darkly,” what might have been rendered as a “Tron”like romp through the surreal remains largely static, even as Arctor descends into madness.

In a nutshell: In the future, undercover agents are used to track the source of a dangerous new mind-blowing narcotic. Bob Arctor is one agent whose inadvertent drug use propels him toward madness. But the action is sluggish, the story line sometimes obtuse. Director Linklater’s decision to use rotoscoping largely as a passive effect is roughly akin to one climbing into a Lamborghini, then never daring to accelerate above 20 mph.

Acorn Rating Guide:

Acorn Rating Guide:

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