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Not having read, PK Dick’s A Scanner Darkly, I was wide with optimism. Adding to the anticipation was Richard Linklater’s rotoscoped reality, first displayed in Waking Life. My hope was that after seeing a reality provoking film, I would be enticed to read the Sci-Fi novel. My experiences have lead me to believe that one should see the movie first, and then, read the book. If I flip the sequence, I am often disappointed with the film adaptation. Too many times, movie folks work as if the mediums of cinema and the novel are somehow interchangeable, and thus force a film to become a visual and often literal adaptation of the novel.
Simply, Linklater’s A Scanner Darkly is even less remarkable than Waking Life. On the surface, I was intrigued by the cast -- Woody Harrelson, Robert Downey, Keanu Reeves, and Winona Ryder. For 30 & 40 somethings, this collection of eccentrics should have added a campy element that Linklater’s film does not exploit. No matter. The story itself is oddly predictable. Druggie dialogue, paranoid reactions, idleness, and confusion remind me too much of Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas and displays, like the Gilliam film, an adolescent attraction to those who romantically destroy their lives through abuse – we’re supposed to be filled with disgust or empathy but the portrayal is winking at us in silent agreement, we envy and laugh at the “exciting” rebelliousness of their self-destruction. Even the plot drones on. The “innocently” placed line that the mega drug rehab corporation, New Path, is outside of government control leads one immediately to the conclusion that those who heal are i
n the business of infecti
Similar to Waking Life, the film’s story suffers from the deep & superficial “wow” that must hang over Hollywood. Like Waking Life, where the lacquer deep probing of lucid dreaming and clichéd explorations of philosophy and consciousness reminded me of a college sophomore who took LCD and went to his philosophy 101 class, the film’s message seems to be that market based morals are driving police, crime, and drugs –corporations, the government, and organized crime are really commercial entities and, therefore, a lazy drama to occupy the inattentive pleasure seekers.
Sadly, the rotoscoping visions in A Scanner Darly lacked purpose and have degenerated to decor. In Waking Life, the presentation of a morphing, drifting reality was appropriate to the film’s content and communicated more directly than any of the overly heady dialogue. The technique hinted at fascinating possibilities in Waking Life but in this film it is as lifeless and uninteresting as the plot.
In the end, I have read where Linklater was more true to the Dick novel than other film adaptations of his work. Blade Runner & Total Recall may not have been exacting in their adaptation, but, again, film is not a novel with pictures.
Phredd
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