What Does A Scanner See?


A Scanner Darkly, a film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Philip K Dick, released in cinemas in 2006 and was directed by Richard Linklater.

Richard Linklater is an independent film maker best known for the films Before Sunrise and its sequel Before Sunset and the animated film Waking Life, which deals the concept of lucid dreaming. Linklater also directed School of Rock, a film in the typical Hollywood mould of film-making, which was entertaining nonetheless.
Philip K Dick was a renowned science fiction author, whose works fall primarily under the cyberpunk genre. Many of his books have been adapted into film, the most famous one being the cult sci-fi film from the 80s, Blade Runner, which was an adaptation of his novel Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep? There have also been adaptations like Total Recall and Paycheck that haven't been so successul at the box office.
A Scanner Darkly is the latest film adaptation of his novels, and since this reviewer has not not read the this book (or any other of the author's work, as a matter of fact), let's go ahead and review this film on the basis of it's cinematic quality as a standalone film.

Story and Screenplay

California, seven years into the future...

America, and possibly the world itself, is in the thrall of a narcotic epidemic caused by the widespread usage and consumption of an illegal substance known as D. It is estimated by a character in the film that upto twenty percent of the population could be addicted to this drug.
In such a world, rehab centers are commonplace and the Narcotics department of the Police have narcotics agents, or narcs as they are commonly referred to, working undercover, quite literally. The narcs wear scramble suits, a camouflaging device in the shape of a wearable suit that transforms these operatives into the ultimate Common Man, by masking their identity through the projection of rapidly changing looks.

One such narc is Agent Fred, who by wearing the scramble suit at work all the time, seems to conceal his true identity as Robert Acrtor, who intriguingly happens to be one of the drug addicts under surveillance by the Narcotics dept. As the movie progresses, Agent Fred is shown to be assigned the task of the surveillance of his own (as Robert Arctor) house.

There is a big and mysterious organisation known as New Path, that works along with the government to study the effects of D and help in the rehabilitation of it's victims. New Path seems to be given a free hand by the government and its activities cannot be monitored by the Narcotics dept.

With the protagonist leading what seems to be two seperate lives as Robert Arctor and as Agent Fred, the story befuddles the viewer as it progresses, giving significant clues until the satisfying and thought provoking end.

This must have been an excellent novel, possibly one of Dick's best works and Linklater done a good job of writing the screenplay. Research from Wikipedia tells me that Dick wrote this semi-autobiographical work from his own experiences with narcotics in his younger days. This has translated effectively to screen too, with both Woody Harrelson's and Robert Downey Jr's characters showing some pretty realistic junkie behaviour with hilarious drug induced dialogue. No dumbing down of a story to fit standard script writing parameters here.

Cast, Characters and Acting

For an independent film, A Scanner Darkly sure has a good cast. While Keanu Reeves, who plays the lead roles of Robert Arctor/Agent Fred, gets by with a decent performance, it is the supporting cast which gives a standout performance. Robert Downey Jr and Woody Harrelson both play characters addicted to D and give such a realistic portrayal, which shouldn't be a surprise considering that both of them have had drug issues in their lives. An irony though is that some good might have come out of their misadventures in real life by the fantastic performances given by them in this film. Rory Cochrane plays the paranoid addict and Winona Ryder plays the dark haired Donna Hawthorne, the drug dealing love interest of Robert Arctor who seems to have some secrets of her own.

Animation

Using the same animation technique employed in Linklater's earlier film Waking Life, called Rotoscoping, the result you see on screen seems to be an oil painted version of live footage. And that is what it essentially is. The whole movie was shot in live action and then painted over, scene by scene by this technique. And this brings us to the question.
Why?

There is this criticism that if a film can be shot in live action, there is no need for it to be animated. This criticism was primarily levelled at the box office disaster Final Fantasy : The Spirits Within. As a fan of Japanese animation where even the most mundane dramas (which could very well be done as live action) are animated, I certainly don't agree with this point of view. There are no rules which establish that a film that satisfies a certain set of parameters should be made only as live action and not be animated.

But Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly are not your average animated films. They have already been shot in live action and then animated over. This seems to be a waste of time and money when the content of the film does not require such a frivolous technique.
Waking Life certainly required such animation. It was a film which dealt with the concept of lucid dreaming and would have scenes showing exaggerated reality. In this case, the rotoscoping is justified. But is it justified in the case of A Scanner Darkly?

Let's see which scenes in the film qualify it for the use of rotoscoping. There is the scramble suit for one.




This was handled really well by rotoscoping. Showing a scramble suit in live action might have required extensive use of CG.

Then there are the hallucinations




But then again, Oldboy had a memorable scene which showed a hallucination of a giant ant and it was done with CG.

And then there is the sex scene where Arctor sees both Donna and Connie




And here too, Vanilla Sky can be used as a comparison where Tom Cruise sees both Penelope Cruz and Cameron Diaz.

These examples show that while A Scanner Darkly need not necessarily have to be done with rotoscoping, it certainly gives a unique look to the film. And the animation is stunning, better than what we've witnessed in Waking Life.

And, to conclude I must say that A Scanner Darkly is an excellent little science fiction film that stands out on its own merit. It may or may not be a faithful adaptation of the book (only Philip K Dick purists can answer that). Either way, this reviewer does not give a damn. This film provides a unique viewing experience that films like Donnie Darko and Primer earlier did and seems to be a worthy addition to the Mind Fuck genre of films. And, that's certainly a good thing. Well done, Mr. Linklater.

This scanner scans dark, very dark indeed.


Reviewer : foogarky