Dick Less (Movie Only) (A Scanner Darkly (DVD))

Member Name: marandina

Product:	A Scanner Darkly (DVD)
Date:	31/12/07 (103 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good story

Disadvantages: Doesn't engage the audience at all

America is in the midst of a future, dystopian battle against drugs. Using an intrusive system of State surveillance, the cops have set up a myriad network of informants and undercover operatives to counter the distribution of the widely available Substance D. Bob Arctor (Keanu Reeves) is an undercover agent assigned to infiltrate the drug supply chain by posing as a drug user and befriending crooks caught up in the drugs racket. When on-duty, Arctor's identity is protected by a constantly changing, digitized suit that continually scrambles his appearance. Code-named Fred, he reports regularly to his superior, Hank, along with the resident medics who keep a check on his mental and physical health. Arctor uncovers a lead by developing a relationship with Donna Hawthorne (Winona Ryder), a cocaine user, hoping that she will lead him to people higher up in the drugs chain. As the effects of Substance D begin to take their toll, Arctor finds distinguishing between his role as a police officer and partner in crime with the other housemates more and more difficult as their paranoia increases and the undercover cop finds the boundaries between reality and a drug-infused alternate existence more and more of a problem.

"A Scanner Darkly" was released in 2006, directed by Richard Linklater and based on the Philip K. Dick novel of the same name. What's unusual is that it was filmed digitally and then animated using interpolated rotoscope (transferring the film to Quicktime for a 15-month animation process) over the original footage. This gives it a cartoon appearance albeit you can see the character's features very clearly defined at times. Originally shown at the festivals in Cannes and Seattle, the movie has had critical acclaim which triggered my interest in watching it in the first place. The movie certainly has an A-list cast including Keanu Reeves in the lead role, Winona Ryder, Woody Harrelson and Robert Downey, Jr. I am a fan of the author's work and have been fascinated by Philip K Dick for some time. Dying in 1982, his work has led to a cult status with a number of his novels translating to the big screen including "Total Recall", "Minority Report" and the magnificent "Blade Runner" to name but a few. With such an illustrious list of great movies associated with Dick, I desperately wanted to like "A Scanner Darkly" and there were good things in there.

Fans of Dick's work (known as Dick Heads?) will recognise many familiar themes from his books paid due homage in Linklater's movie. With the main thrust being around the battle against drugs and the lengths the police will go to in order to get a result, there's a certain paranoia set within an authoritarian State that features in many of Dick's other stories. Big Corporations, the hallucinogenic world of drugs and the impact on ordinary lives are all brought to bear in what is, essentially, a tight, clever story with a notable twist at the finale. The imagination employed in both the scramble suits and the police force's ability to visually record and track most of the population by a system of voice recognition media and telescreens is futuristic even if it has a certain "Big Brother" feel of voyeurism to it and for those that have seen the excellent "Minority Report" then the concepts will be familiar.

However, the run time of 100 minutes is hard work. Graham Reynolds provides the musical score but it's a constant tinkling, twilight sound that definitely creates a dream-like backdrop but also fails to change the mood for the majority of the film's viewing time. It's difficult to gauge acting performances when the effects are clearly designed to take pride of place but I didn't get along with the similarly concieved "Sin City" and here again, I simply couldn't see what these visual effects were meant to add. I guess there will be some reasoning around creating a comic book feel on-screen but it's something that doesn't work for me and the whole script plods along, failing to engage or excite the audience at any point. Maybe there's a certain irony that Reeves actually looks as cartoonly wooden in this film as he does in more conventionally shot movies with even his delivery of the script both low key and staccato. Harrelson and Downey Junior look and sound as though they are permanently on speed and maybe that's what was intended but, again, it was nigh on impossible to find any empathy with any of the characters which was only enhanced by the unique way in which the film was shot.

"A Scanner Darkly" is a 15 certificate with adult themes. The movie has won awards and has, on the whole, been well received by the critics. For me, the whole idea around shooting the movie like a cartoon, the sound track and the lack of general engagement made it a long couple of hours out of my day. For fans of Philip K Dick's work then it will probably be an essential addition to other screen adaptations of his books and for those with more patience than me then you may find me being to harsh. Quite frankly, I was really disappointed and absolutely wouldn't recommend this to anyone other than die-hard fans.

Thanks for reading.

Mara

DVD available at Amazon from £14.01

Summary: Overview of Movie