A SCANNER DARKLY

I had been looking forward to this film for a long time when I heard that they were animating it in the same way that Linklater's 2001 film Waking Life was. Waking Life was one of my favorite films of that year and part of it was the animation style...totally cool. Well, A Scanner Darkly looks just as cool if not moreso, but that's the best thing about the film. Maybe after a second viewing I might change my mind, but there seems to be a lot of moving with nothing going on at times. What I mean is that the destination was worth getting to, but the journey wasn't nearly as involving. There are complete scenes that consist of the main characters flapping their jaws with nothing much that adds to the narrative. Do we discover a bit more about the characters during these times? Yes, but not enough. There are a few very entertaining sequences including a Kafka-esque vision, Rory Cochrane's drug-fueled delusions, and just about any scene that Robert Downey Jr. is in, he's very well cast and his performance is one of the saving graces of the film. As I mentioned earlier, the destination is worth it...meaning that there's a twist that comes, but it was almost too little too late for me when it arrived. They hadn't totally lost me by that point, but if it weren't for the animation, they may have. I imagine that since they shot on DV (which is infinitely cheaper than film) and animated over the top of it, there's probably loads of raw footage that they cut that'll be available on the DVD...maybe. It was also fun to see one of my friends in the film, Dallas actor Chamblee Ferguson plays one of the Medical Deputies that evaluates Reeves and does a fine job...good times. It's definitely worth a look for the curious. If you're a Philip K. Dick or Richard Linklater fan then you'll probably want to check it out in the theater, otherwise I'd say wait for the DVD.
- veg