A Scanner Darkly – 2006
Director: Richard Linklater
Cast: Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., Winona Ryder, Woody Harrelson
Rating: 
The movie has a remarkable plot line for as much as it sounds supernatural, yet, it can happen! The worse was anticipated and we humans have surrendered to drug addiction. The director (Richard Linklater) awakens reality in this Si-Fi Adventure by commencing the movie with a “seven years from now” phrase to indicate how close we are from Dystopia, and closing it with a dedication to real life experiences, drug addicts that he knew….
The movie follows the story of a trendy drug called ‘Substance D’ who happened to trap 20% of the nation’s easily-tempted-souls. The police decide to plant surveillance systems in targeted locations along with High-Tech Scanners and send an undercover agent, Bob Arctor (Keanu Reeves), to hangout with a suspicious group to find out the source of their supply.
Arctor then meets James Barris (Robert Downey Jr.) , Ernie Luckman (Woody Harrleson), and Donna Hawthorne (Winona Ryder). Not long enough, the agent’s life turns upside down when he becomes an addict himself and falls in the unwinding black hole of hallucination where he can’t tell which life is more real to him. Desperate enough, he tries to cope strongly with both lives seeking the affection and condolence of Donna and hoping that his regular medical checkups would keep him safe and sound.
As the story unfolds, the beholder’s confusion level tops up where you can’t tell if it signifies something that he cant differentiate between his two lives and if the less likely to be real is actually real. However, I believe animation failed to translate… The movie as it stand looks highly sophisticated and tempting as it is not comic-based and not some high-tech animated cartoon movie… it is real people going digital! However, immense emotions, drug induced delusions, and distanced anxiety attacks were a bit lost in minor gestures where the human eye failed to catch.
By the time the movie came out there wasn’t much of such nature, of course except for famous comic characters like Batman and his fellow super-heroes who’ve been hitting the screen since the 40’s. However, this kind of animation was somehow new… years later different genres of comic-inspired movies started trending the industry. The idea behind animating the movie was for it to be more close to lucid dreaming than reality. The actors would forget they will later be animated so they had to repeat few shots to make the scenes more reasonable when they get digitized.
When the film was released, unfortunately on the same week of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. It was nothing near being a Smash Hit even if its not intended for conventional viewers. Attendance number increased during later weeks, but still it didn’t make its way in breaking even its budget. On the other hand, Professional Critics were on the movies side as they saw it refreshing, appealing, alarming, and visually entertaining.
The movie has an aim, as deep as the problem it is covering. However, it is hard to follow and easy to hate. I wouldn’t have missed in any case… as interesting piece to watch!
3 responses so far
Too slow, very cold, and storyline difficult to follow. I like the idea and the story it could have been done in a much much better way. Seriously.
Those undercover suits were hard on the eyes… very distracting; maybe this is why the story was hard to follow. Different experience, not necessarily pleasant.
Although both Reaves & Downing Jr. are great performers, but this movie is really dissapointing. It’s distracting, and the story is dull, i always laugh when i see this movie because it makes me remember this egyptian singer ” Mohammed Mounir “, always trying to do new stuff, but never worked with him
!!
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