REVIEW: A Scanner Darkly

For a film that looked, seemed and felt like such a promising premise, I cannot imagine a bigger disappointment than this passing through my radar this year.

With Richard Linklater (Before Sunrise/Sunset, Waking Life) in the chair and a cherry-picked cast of ex-troublemakers whose lives pre-empted the imitations of art that could be read into this, I expected much. Sure, Keanu Reeves can't really do emotion, but he doesn't have to. They're gonna animate his face for him taking out the painstaking task of deciding how his character is feeling at any given moment. Then surround him with excellent bit part players in Robert Downey Jr. and Winona Ryder. A recipe for an above average indie-flick, no?

NO. While the animatic rendering of the characters is impressive in terms of effort and dedication to a vision, its only really necessary in a handful of scenes where such visual invention is needed. Much of the film from then on is filled with lumpen exposition and pretentious, sub-Generation X pondering/theorising. The whole film has delusions of importance as a social comment on the effect of the drugs trade. The basic conspiracy theorising of Phillip K. Dick (upon whose short story this is based) is never either explained, validated or even explored to any real degree, getting lost in the milieu of visual experimentation and the elevation of style over substance.

It certainly is a stylish film and Rory Cochrane's excellent performance as a crazed junkie is outstandingly observed. But too much is left unsaid, undone and undercooked. The potential side-stories regarding the brutal sociopathy of Downey Jr.'s character are only touched upon briefly and the 'twist' is so deeply obvious you come close to reaching into the screen and banging Keanu's expressionless head against a wall for not realising it. The final epilogue at the film's absolute close again allow forum for Dick's unsubstantiated claims of governmental control over drugs and attempts to eek sympathy from us for his list of drug-destroyed friends. Its a fairly ridiculous attempt at pathos after a film of cold disconnection, an exercise in art and style.

Akin to other Linklater works, debate will likely rage over his talent once more. Fans will tell you it is a coruscating attack on rampant drug trade growth and that the animatics are a visionary, inventive way to set a mood within the story. Me, I'll tell you this is pretentious, half-cocked narrative filmmaking and an exercise in style over substance. What a disappointment.