A SCANNER DARKLY (2006) - ***1/2I think the most stark moment in Richard Linklater's film is the ending, where epilogue from Phillip K. Dick's novel is flashed across the screen. It lists the names of many friends and acquitances of Dick's who had died or suffered permanent brain damage because of their excessive drug use. Earlier in this movie, I had laughed at the rather humorous and rather pathetic shenanigans of the stoners living at Keanu Reeves' house.
It was like watching Linklater's DAZED & CONFUSED again, except this time he uses the haunting words of Dick to punch me for giggling at those druggies instead of feeling sorry for them. It certainly makes me feel more guilty than those infomercials about starving kids in Africa ever did.
If anything, these addicts are the hapless tools of this American police state and its militant actions. Privacy is a foreign concept as state surveillance is a fact of life. In fact, this bureautical nightmare of a system may in fact be the reason why they are the losing the War on Drugs to this mysterious narcotic known as "Substance D."
Dick's stories have long been a plundering ground for Hollywood, but A SCANNER DARKLY is the first adaptation of a Dick novel, and you get his usual exploration of identity and the deception of it. Who are
you?, Who am
I?, you know the drill.
But the difference is, this is a book that Hollywood can't simply take the basic premise and re-write it into some blockbuster action movie. It's a story about a narcotics cop who infiltrates a drug ring, and because he is an addict of the "D," he's mentally splitered into two different people. Not exactly the sort of material to get Will Smith attached for a summer release.
The movie's most controversial aspect seems to be Linklater's visuals. He digitally shot the actors, then pulled a Ralph Bakshi and rotoscoped them in lucious animation that Linklater had done years before with his WAKING LIFE. Many people can't stand this look, but I think it works, at least in ambition, of trying to capture the surreal reality of drug abuse.
Certainly many moments seem nearly fluidly "live" as digital cinematography can shoot, but then next we get a crazy-ass hallucination like Robert Downey Jr. morphing into a giant cockroach. Imagine if Cronenberg had used this approach for NAKED LUNCH.
The real acheivement and problem of this look is the Scramble suit, which these cops use to hide their identity. The faces and bodies of people from different genders and ethnicities flash simultaneously, and it takes some time (if possible) for your eyes to get used to it.
Yet, A SCANNER DARKLY as scripted by Linklater just isn't seriously engaging enough for me. Maybe this is a story not well-suited for cinema. Maybe its Linklater's fault at adaptating the book, but I wouldn't know since I haven't read Dick's book.
But the main substance for A SCANNER DARKLY is the acting. Even if your eyes revolt at the visuals, you still have a good cast. Keanu Reeves will never be a great actor, but he's finely suited for this sort of brooding, low-toned role. It's good to see Woody Harleson be cool in a cool movie again. Winona Ryder doesn't shoplift my time for once.
But its Downey who kicks ass for the Lord. A great actor who sadly might be known more by many for his own notorius drug past, Downey is the sort of fool who is obsessive about being in control, but he's the most controlled perhaps of the brood. Maybe the type of person who needs narcotics to be a somebody compared to some of his roommates.
Downey dominates the screen in every screen, and every actor is helped by his presence. This is yet another hit under his comeback campaign, with KISS KISS BANG BANG and Fincher's ZODIAC and the upcoming IRON MAN movie, Downey is definately back.
For us movie fans, we're glad he didn't become a listed casualty like those real-life comrades of Dick.