Review of A Scanner Darkly (2006) by Lyndon G — 29 Jan 2010

It is my understanding that A Scanner Darkly is fairly faithful to the novel but veers away from some of the plot's complications and replaces them with Richard Linklater's characteristic ad-lib banter from the actors. Given that the characters are constantly stoned on a drug called D, their inane arguments and attempts to sound clever may not be so unrealistic. Unfortunately, I found them about as uninspiring as you'd expect, and I lost a bit of my admiration for Robert Downey Jr. The rotoscoped animation is quite alluring and lulling, especially some scenes in which characters hidden behind scramble suits, suits that project constantly changing facial features and clothes to hide the identity of their wearers, play cat and mouse with each other's identities. The first scene involves formication--a feeling of ants crawling under the skin associated with several drugs and the fictional drug D--and shows green insects on a man's skin and in his hair. This is a nice use of the technique. To me this movie is really hit or miss. Much of the dialogue irritated or bored me, but I wouldn't complain about this if I didn't know from a friend that it was specifically replacing plot elements, and specifically replacing a script that had been written by Charlie Kaufman. If you ignore this seeming tragedy, the whole work lacks much of a center other than the pretty pictures, occasional Radiohead songs, and moments of unexpected humor or originality from the actors. One thing A Scanner Darkly does not do is glamorize drug use. These guys are pretty pathetic.

Keanu Reeves plays Arctor, an undercover cop trying to bust a drug ring. The trouble is that he has begun to take the drug to fit in, and as it is neurologically quite damaging, he is losing track of whether he is really a cop or really a druggie; in fact he seems to be both. Did he sign up to go undercover so that he could support a drug habit, or is he only addicted in the line of duty? Meanwhile, his drug friend Barris, played by Robert Downey Jr and the brightest of the clique, has a drug-induced suspicion that he's being watched and begins going to the police to try to bust Arctor. The suspicion is right. To guard against moles within the police, undercover agents wear scramble suits while they are at the station, and they receive orders from officers who are also in scramble suits. Arctor is watched by cameras all the time that he is at home and yet is somehow supposed to keep his identity from the police and the fact of his police affiliation from his friends. The police begin to suspect that he, Arctor, is in fact the head of the drug ring and the route to the higher-ups. At this point he has a hard time keeping his head during his scramble-suit meetings. He begins a stalled romance with Donna, a woman played by Winona Ryder who takes so much cocaine that she is frigid.

To say any more about the plot would give away the ending. Richard Linklater did what he does with this movie, and I don't think it quite suits the material. A lot of people are kicking themselves (and maybe effigies of Linklater) over the demise of Charlie Kaufman's script for A Scanner Darkly. Even if it had been a relative clunker for him, it can't have been less interesting.