A Scanner Darkly
A Scanner Darkly is an amazing new film directed by Richard Linklater. It’s based on the novel of the same name by Philip K. Dick. It is amazingly almost exactly the same as the book. If I had to compare this film to anything it would be Fight Club just because it follows the book so well, but as Fight Club strayed from the book a few times, A Scanner Darkly sticks with the book. The only difference would be the ending. I am not giving anything away by saying the ending is just a tad more optimistic than the book.
A Scanner Darkly follows the story of Bob Arctor (Keanu Reeves). He seems to be having problems with his job, something is effecting job performance. He begins receiving tests from a couple of scientists who are trying to determine his problems with a strange series of tests. The film also follows the story of James Barris (Robert Downey Jr.), Ernie Luckman (Woody Harrelson) and Charles Freck (Rory Cochrane), 3 junkies who spout philosophy and do drugs all day. The acting is superb. Keanu Reeves actually delivers a great performance and Robert Downey Jr. practically steals every scene. Even Winona Ryder as Donna Hawthorne is good and I normally hate her. I don’t want to explain to much of the story as it will give too much away.
The animation actually fits this film really well (I thought it would be a distraction). I don’t think they could have made these things called “scramble suits” in a regular film. Basically it’s a suit that someone wheres that spits an image of someone else up every second so that no one will know who is underneath. Richard Linklater did a really good job adapting the book and directing as well. I tend to ignore his films as they are heavily philosiphy laden and I tend to hate those type of films. It is a really well crafted film, I enjoyed it very much and recommend people go see this piece of work.
Rene A. Moncivais
July 20th, 2006 at 12:49 am
This was a pretty good movie. I definitely applaud Linklater’s ambition for this project. The rotoscoping and animation is some of the best that I’ve seen on the big screen. I’ve heard some comments by people as to why he even bothered with the animation. Some scenes were done so well that the reality showed through, and they might say that the animation was uneccessary in most places. Well, to that I say it was definitely necessary. The movie is about drug use and its affects on the mind. The dreamy and unreal quality the animation adds to everything, is a good reflection of what it is like to be high all the time. Most noticeable was the way the environment and background constantly moved and skewed out of perspective. Phillip K. Dick was a heavy drug user and most of his writing centers either around that or the paranoia that comes from it. The movie wasn’t life changing by any means, but I think Linklater hit pretty close to the mark on this one. -Tony