A Scanner Darkly
Director: Richard Linklater
Grade: B+

I do not consider myself an avid reader of the work of Philip K. Dick, however, I have seen a fair number of the screen adaptations of his novels. Given the circumstances, I feel no qualms in labeling the adaptation of A Scanner Darkly the most literal translation of his work thus far (especially when one considers that John Woo’s Paycheck also falls into that category).

Be that as it may, the trailers for the film mislead one into thinking the opposite, pulling from the film the least provocative moments and painting it as a sort of animated Matrix (casting Keanu Reeves in the leading role doesn’t help diffuse this assessment). Given the false pretense surrounding the film, it emerges all the more satisfying when one discovers it shares more in common with Linklater’s previous Rotoscopic animated feature Waking Life than it does with the Wachowski brothers psuedo-intellectual sci-fi epic.

The film, driven almost entirely by dialogue ranging from scientific observations to philosophical debates to arguments even encompassing topics as trivial ten-speed bikes, relates the story of Bob Arctor (Reeves). He’s a washed-up junkie living with a group of paranoid degenerates including conspiracy theorist James Barris (Robert Downey Jr.) and Charles Freck (Rory Cochrane) who appears forever lost within his own hallucinations.

Early in the film we discover that Arctor leads a double life, posing as a junkie while in reality working as an undercover detective attempting to infiltrate a drug ring peddling a new kind of deadly narcotic. So clandestine is his operation that at the office he dons a futuristic bodysuit that disguises his identity behind a patchwork of infinitely changing bodies – a sort of multicultural mosaic. Most of his dealings are with his superior, known merely as Hank who also hides behind a blur of images. The two men talk at length which each other. They appear casual and friendly, but once they leave the office, they become strangers, neither one privy to the other’s true identity.

This should sufficiently introduce one to the dystopic world of A Scanner Darkly in which identities cannot be trusted, and allegiances shift without warning. One of the major themes surrounding the narrative concerns the notion that agencies constantly survey you. Given the recent controversy involving the NSA wiretaps and the implied erosion of civil liberties I can see what attracted Linklater to this project. Set a mere seven years from now, A Scanner Darkly illustrates an entirely plausible future that, if our fanatic desire for security continues to outweigh our rights as free citizens, we will likely find ourselves cast within.

The film is a weighty philosophical debate on identity, freedom and reality, but I would not recommend it for just anyone. True enough, the Rotoscope animation is superb and well worth a look for those interested, but only if they’re willing, as they were with Waking Life, to open their minds to the lengthy discourse of it. In a time when films take insightful concepts and overload them with mindless action, it’s refreshing to view one that has the patience to sit down and actually discuss pertinent issues.