A Scanner Darkly
8 out of 10
A few years ago, Richard Linklater hooked up with some buddy from Austin with a method for computer-assisted rotoscoping and made Waking Life, a tour through philosophy and poetry of dreams. I found the film's deep thoughts a bit trite and uninspiring, but there was no questioning the beauty and possibilities of the unique visual style. The process shoots live actors, and then draws over the footage (rotoscoping) giving things a surreal feeling without the caricature of cartoons or the creepy plastic mannequins of photo-realistic animation. So when Linklater started applying the style to a narrative film (thus avoiding the philosophy-lite I took issue with in Waking Life) I got excited.
I went ahead and read the book, Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly and my excitement only grew. The book centers around a group of junkies addicted to a science-fictional psychedelic called Substance D. One of them is also introduced as Fred, an undercover cop making regular reports on the group and the possibilities that they might lead up the distribution ladder. Thanks to a bit of techno-fantasy, Fred and his boss only interact while wearing special suits that disguise their identities, so no one's sure which of the junkies is actually Fred. Fred, who's suffering from side effects of a Substance D addiction, even finds himself unsure about the identity of his alter ego.
The drug-addled realities of A Scanner Darkly are perfect for the distorted imagery of this animation style. Linklater ditches much of the confusion over which junkie is actually Fred, instead focusing on the terror of developing such a schism within one's own mind. Even the surveillance equipment conspires against him, confirming events that seemed to be hallucinations. Hence the title.
Linklater's name gets him a group of well-known actors, even though their faces are going to be replaced with wobbly drawings. Robert Downey Jr. plays an entertaining paranoid pseudo-intellectual. Woody Harrelson predictably nails a dopey stoner-surfer. Winona Ryder reminded me of why she was once so important with a character walking a knife-edge and scared of how easily she could fall off. But the center of the movie is Keanu Reeves. Keanu gets a lot of crap, but I disagree with the simplistic conventional wisdom that he's an idiot. He's picked some bad projects and been badly used in others, but he was an inspired choice for A Scanner Darkly. He communicates with his entire body, informing us even when the animated figure is only a disguise suit with blurry shifting features. Go back and watch some of Keanu's other work and reconsider him. Ted Logan was a harder role than it looked.
And before I forget: there's a lot of Radiohead. Three tracks (some old b-sides but nothing new) plus "Black Swan" from Thom Yorke's just-released album The Eraser. This is worth an extra half-point by itself; I love Radiohead that much. So maybe it should actually be only 7.5.
But for all the advantages of A Scanner Darkly- strong source material, adapted by an interesting and capable writer/director with a good cast and an innovative visual technique- it fails to be all I hoped for. That's not saying it's bad, because it's better than all but a handful of films I've seen this year, rather that I had very hopes that weren't quite met. The standard for Philip K. Dick movies has always been Blade Runner, perhaps unfairly, since nothing has come close to it. I know that A Scanner Darkly is much better than Minority Report or Total Recall and I assume it's far better than Paycheck, Screamers, or Imposter. Yet I was hoping for something to rival Blade Runner. Or, given the themes involved, Trainspotting. It's worth watching and it won't rot your brain, putting it above every major release so far this summer, but I can't call it a classic.
Directed by Richard Linklater; Written by Richard Linklater (screenplay) and Philip K. Dick (novel); Starring Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., Winona Ryder, Woody Harrelson, and Rory Cochrane; MPAA #442344
Viewed on 13Jul2006 at the Hollywood Theatre
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home