 | |  |  | | Media: | HD DVD | | Country: | USA | | Studio: | Warner Home Video | | Cert: | R | | Discs: | 1 |
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Screen captures are for illustration purposes and may not originate from the item reviewed. | | A Scanner Darkly Review| HD DVD review written by Simon Crust, published 17th April 2007 | Supplied for review by  | Addiction. I suffer. There, I’ve admitted it. The first step to recovery. My addiction? DVD. More specifically HD DVD. Who would have though it, it has only been a few short months, but I’m hooked and I can’t look back. I only discovered this addiction in the last two weeks, when I was forced away from my precious player. But now I know my limitations I can deal with them. Yeah right.
At least I’m not as bad as the characters in Philip K. Dick paranoia infested tale A Scanner Darkly. Their addiction is to a new drug, Substance D, highly addictive and completely destructive. As with any banned substance there are law enforcement officers dedicated to stopping the flow of the drug, their methods questionable, their motives laudable. Once such agent is Officer Fred (Keanu Reeves), his identity concealed behind a scramble suit so that not even his own work mates know who he is, is given the arduous task of watching a small group of addicts, Donna Hawthorne (Winona Ryder), James Barris (Robert Downey Jr.), Luckman (Woody Harrelson), Charles Freck (Rory Cochrane) and Bob Arctor, actually himself! As Fred slips further and further into addiction, his personality splits, a by product of the drug, with his paranoia and duty causing irreparable damage as the left and right side of his brain war with each other; and when his actual mission is revealed, unbeknownst to himself, then conspiracy and paranoia become bed fellows with a Government gleefully destroying its own citizens under the pretence of saving them.
Director Richard Linklater has a good take on the script, even if its meandering narrative does grate at times. The basic problem, as with most Linklater films, is the characters have dedicated scenes where nothing but idle chatter happens. Granted, Linklater, uses these scenes, and there are many, to the further the paranoia of the characters, the banter between Luckman, Barris and Archer titres on insanity at all times, but they never actually further the plot and coincidently were the scenes he had to fight hardest to keep. Almost seen as idle banter, the speed of the delivery and the subject matters are at the best times hard to follow and the worst downright frustrating. However, when the plot is moving forward there is much enjoyment to be had. Watching Archer, or Fred, watching himself descending further and further into madness as he struggles to cope with hiding his addiction is the stuff of nightmares. The loss of control, the manipulation and the destruction are rarely handled so well, it is not as compelling as Aronofsky Requiem for a Dream (2000) but it’s on the right track. With the final twist, though not completely unexpected, enough to send the film in a completely different direction.
A lot has been made of the rotoscoping method of filming used for this film. All I will say is that while never overstating the visuals the method seemed to suit the film. I’m not a huge fan of the technique, whilst the figures have proportions and movement of a real person, it somehow looks false, and by its very nature looks 2 D, even the 3 D representations come away looking flat. But somehow, in this addiction infested film, the visual style seems to fit what’s happening. The aforementioned scramble suit working particularly well along with the hallucinogenic qualities of the drug; the film has an out of this world look, even though it is based in a solid reality.
The film doesn’t quite have the dark edge associated with a strong Philip K. Dick adaptation, it is no Blade Runner (1982), though there is just enough here to get your teeth into if only it didn’t meander so frustratingly during its run time.
Movie score : 5 | | 643 word review written by Simon Crust. |  | To comment on this review, click here and post a reply.
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