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Filmmaker transports audience on odd trip in ‘A Scanner Darkly’

By Lou Gaul Calkins Media Film Critic 3 min read

For “A Scanner Darkly,” director Richard Linklater takes Phillip K. Dick’s 1977 science-fiction novel about drugs, addiction, paranoia and reality and gives it a visual look that audiences may consider either a trippy gimmick or an inspired innovation. As with his 2001 film, “Waking Life,” the filmmaker employs the interpolated-rotoscoping process, which basically takes animation techniques and paints over live-action footage to create an almost-psychedelic image. For me, watching actors layered with computer-painted imagery proves tiresome, but I must admit that the technique often works well with “A Scanner Darkly,” an overly complicated tale that manages to capture the imaginations of viewers and transport them on a truly strange trip.

Set in Orange County, California, seven years from now, the R-rated picture follows an undercover narc (Keanu Reeves of “The Matrix”), who wears a “scramble suit” to protect his identity as he spies on users while investigating a powerful drug named Substance D that’s being shipped from overseas and distributed here. The highly addictive substance causes despair and death, a fact that fails to damage the demand for it.

The narcotics agent becomes hooked on it, faces a confused reality and comes into contact with various users, including scene-stealing Robert Downey Jr. (“Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang”), who delivers his dialogue in a stream-of-consciousness fashion. Winona Ryder (“Bram Stoker’s Dracula”), who hasn’t worked much since her 2001 shoplifting arrest, plays a dealer being charmed by Reeves’ character so he can learn her source of the illegal substance.

Ultimately, Linklater, who also directed the stoner favorite “Dazed and Confused,” communicates a warning about the dangers of drugs and the devastatingly quick damage they can cause. He laces the downbeat subject matter with humorous asides and images that help draw viewers into the strange, frightening new world where authorities are losing the war on drugs.

The cast members obviously believed in “A Scanner Darkly” and agreed to work for scale in the modestly budgeted $8.5 million film. Although the result certainly isn’t for most people, those open to taking a mind-boggling journey that might have dazzled the members of the Grateful Dead in their prime should find this adaptation quite a cautionary cinematic trip.

FILM REVIEW

“A Scanner Darkly”

Grade: B-

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder and Robert Downey Jr.; screenplay by Richard Linklater, based on the novel by Philip K. Dick; directed by Linklater.

Running time: 105 minutes.

Parental Guide: R rating (strong drug use, violence, nudity, harsh four-letter profanity, adult themes.

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