"A Scanner Darkly" (2006) - Movie Review

Richard Linklater’s “Waking Life” is one of the most creative daring explorations of film making and philosophical aspects perfected. I was not aware that “A Scanner Darkly” is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Phillip K. Dick only after I read about it in Wiki. Both “Waking Life” and “A Scanner Darkly” is an animated version wherein they shoot the real sequence with actual actors and then animate it. This gave “Waking Life” the much needed dreaming visuals and also the reality of motion picture. They applied the gooey amoebic restructuring of the animation as and when it is necessary. They do not use it out here and rightly for a reason. To be upfront about this film, this is one of the best films with equivalence of “Being John Malkovich” creativity and the humour Tarantino’s dialogue would beg to comply and the tragic nature of the characters itself. It is a “Requiem for a Dream” mating with the Gilliam making a “good” version of the much boring “Brazil”. Result is a Linklater originality and flamboyance of imagination adapted well onto the screen. And for some one who has not read the novel of this nature to give a taste of it is an exemplary art of adaptation.

It is an identity crisis of Fred (Keanu Reeves) who works as a narcotics undercover agent in a futuristic world of consistent surveillance. The future seven years from now as the film says is consumed by a large percentage of drug addicted junkies. Fred infiltrates as Bob Arctor into the world of a group of drug addicts James Barris (Robert Downey Jr.), Donna Hawthorne (Winona Ryder), Ernie (Woody Harrelson) and Freck (Rory Cochrane). Bob resembles Danny Parker of “The Salton Sea” but the agenda is different. The associates are equally crazy of coming up with their own “Kujo’s Heist” and there are lots of its comedy and weirdness they sincerely act out. Their endless diverse diving into the littlest insipid conversation confuses Bob and us ridiculously, yet highly addictive and interesting. The drug which is of potent effect is what they call “Substance D”. It obviously catches on like a leech and showers its dreadful hallucinations, paranoid and differential psychological reaction to the consumed person. Fred/Bob digs a feet a day into that and due to the nature of the animation and dialogues, we are in for a pay off which might or might not make sense. It is cobwebs of questions and answers clear as mud.

But what makes the film stand out and stay true to the nature of the book is the animation. The lucidity of the script and characters would have been terribly lost if it would have taken its form of usual real life film making. The feeling of us being drugged is the crucial part of the story as such for us to believe in the line of plots and its turns. But in contrary the drug is more of psychological alterative effect than the weird animated feature of dreaming and being lost in imaginary illusions. We are annoyed with the mixed identity of Bob/Fred. Who really is this person? Why is he the head of the drug house and also the covert operating cop? What are his intentions? Linklater does not disappoint us and points to research on his material. That said, it is not deceiving or trying to be clever. It needs to be understood as the novel. Having not read it, the film hinted how authentic it was taken to the pictures and how well the creative construction of the world Phillip K. Dick produced in his book gets the shape it deserves once our exploration of real answers end in Internet hunt.

Downey Jr. and Harrelson are somewhat underrated actors for their real talents. Harrelson especially goes unnoticed in thin air in many films. Their arch rivalry of characters and the humour they bring on to this rather sad tale of addiction and paranoid delusions is immeasurable. There is nothing new in this form of dark comic nature two characters bring out of their cat and mouse fight. Where a Tom and Jerry takes an adult stand among the disturbing drug influence is a tough nut to crack and mainly make people laugh out of a misery in quite a cruel form. They do it guiltless and inflict us with a moral of sadness after our sudden guffaw. Keanu Reeves’ sunken face has never fit so perfect apart from “The Matrix” for a character which dissolves into multiple persons. Strangely the same face fits for that different personality. The reason may be is that Bob or Fred or all the other person has been built upon a genetic generic quality of nobility.

Linklater is my favourite director who has no problem in morphing and adapting himself to any genre with ease and a touch of his own. While we have seen a character turning out to be some one else and the real intentions of him alive in “The Salton Sea”, Linklater’s version of it in futuristic setting with some limited magical equipments and surveillance of immense nature of course gives an experience to be watched again to fully grasp of its creativity and complexity.