The dark side of the world
Edmonton (CUP) — In the near future, we will be under constant, omnipresent surveillance, our every action categorized and logged by scanners capable of seeing straight through us. The abstract wars on terror and drugs will have devoured themselves to birth a hybrid of paranoia and police-state regulation.
At least, such is the setting painted by director Richard Linklater in A Scanner Darkly, the screenplay adaptation of sci-fi author Phillip K. Dick's prophetic thriller.
The film stars Keanu Reeves as Robert Arctor, a tormented man completely unaware of who or what he is, working as an undercover police officer in a sting operation as a new and incredibly powerful synthetic drug — known as Substance D — begins to circulate across America, blazing out of control.
Arctor, posing as an addict himself, resides in a house full of pill-popping lowlifes and dealers, attempting to work his way up the hierarchy to the local source of the drug. But as Substance D seeps into his life, Arctor begins to lose his grip on everything around him, including himself.
The resulting trip is a surreal journey of lost lives, false loves and forgotten opportunities. Arctor must find himself before he can begin to discover the identities of those around him.
The casting in A Scanner Darkly is exceptional. While Reeves can easily be criticized for playing only characters like The Matrix's Neo, this is exactly the type of character that makes Arctor's tormented state so fitting.
In an amusing and effective supporting role — inspired, perhaps, by real life — Robert Downey Jr. plays the paranoid drug addict who resides in Arctor's house.
Donna Hawthorne, a drug dealer who is the target of a police sting and the love interest of Arctor, is played by Winona Ryder, who rounds out the lead roles perfectly. Rory Cochrane and Woody Harrelson make appearances in animated bit parts.
Using an oft-overlooked but visually stimulating animation technique, the first thing that makes A Scanner Darkly truly stand out is the marriage of live-action film to computerized cell shading. Film frames are painted over with a posterized two-dimensional rendering, similar to Linklater's earlier work Waking Life. The end result is a film that is both animated and realistic, with effects that blend seamlessly into the psychedelic settings.
Because so much of the movie is seen from the perspective of Arctor under the influence of Substance D, the bleeding colours and morphing shapes simulate the effects of a heavy acid trip so well that the return to the crisp and clear images produced by surveillance cameras feels unsettlingly out of place.
The film certainly warrants multiple viewings, if not for its breathtaking visuals, then for its intricately interwoven plot. However, everything from the camera shots to the narrative are so often taken from Arctor's first-person perspective that it's easy to become as confused and overwhelmed by the world around him as he is.
It's also easy to get lost in a scene and feel as though you've just missed something relevant, despite the fact that there was seemingly nothing there. Much of this perplexity could probably be remedied by watching a DVD release, or by simply reading the original novel.
A Scanner Darkly may not portray an entirely accurate vision of the future, as is implied by Phillip K. Dick's parting words in the film, but it certainly offers a plunge into the depths of the human psyche, tortured by the self-destructive acts of the body. Although we can never really see through to the soul, Scanner can see through the darkness and into the drug-trade core itself.
At least, such is the setting painted by director Richard Linklater in A Scanner Darkly, the screenplay adaptation of sci-fi author Phillip K. Dick's prophetic thriller.
The film stars Keanu Reeves as Robert Arctor, a tormented man completely unaware of who or what he is, working as an undercover police officer in a sting operation as a new and incredibly powerful synthetic drug — known as Substance D — begins to circulate across America, blazing out of control.
Arctor, posing as an addict himself, resides in a house full of pill-popping lowlifes and dealers, attempting to work his way up the hierarchy to the local source of the drug. But as Substance D seeps into his life, Arctor begins to lose his grip on everything around him, including himself.
The resulting trip is a surreal journey of lost lives, false loves and forgotten opportunities. Arctor must find himself before he can begin to discover the identities of those around him.
The casting in A Scanner Darkly is exceptional. While Reeves can easily be criticized for playing only characters like The Matrix's Neo, this is exactly the type of character that makes Arctor's tormented state so fitting.
In an amusing and effective supporting role — inspired, perhaps, by real life — Robert Downey Jr. plays the paranoid drug addict who resides in Arctor's house.
Donna Hawthorne, a drug dealer who is the target of a police sting and the love interest of Arctor, is played by Winona Ryder, who rounds out the lead roles perfectly. Rory Cochrane and Woody Harrelson make appearances in animated bit parts.
Using an oft-overlooked but visually stimulating animation technique, the first thing that makes A Scanner Darkly truly stand out is the marriage of live-action film to computerized cell shading. Film frames are painted over with a posterized two-dimensional rendering, similar to Linklater's earlier work Waking Life. The end result is a film that is both animated and realistic, with effects that blend seamlessly into the psychedelic settings.
Because so much of the movie is seen from the perspective of Arctor under the influence of Substance D, the bleeding colours and morphing shapes simulate the effects of a heavy acid trip so well that the return to the crisp and clear images produced by surveillance cameras feels unsettlingly out of place.
The film certainly warrants multiple viewings, if not for its breathtaking visuals, then for its intricately interwoven plot. However, everything from the camera shots to the narrative are so often taken from Arctor's first-person perspective that it's easy to become as confused and overwhelmed by the world around him as he is.
It's also easy to get lost in a scene and feel as though you've just missed something relevant, despite the fact that there was seemingly nothing there. Much of this perplexity could probably be remedied by watching a DVD release, or by simply reading the original novel.
A Scanner Darkly may not portray an entirely accurate vision of the future, as is implied by Phillip K. Dick's parting words in the film, but it certainly offers a plunge into the depths of the human psyche, tortured by the self-destructive acts of the body. Although we can never really see through to the soul, Scanner can see through the darkness and into the drug-trade core itself.
