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Scanner Darkly (A)
R4 - Australia - Warner Home Video Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak and Damian Kissick (22nd June 2007). |
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The Film
 Assuming you have not read the novel/semi-autobiography by Philip K Dick (or even wasn't aware that it was based on one), one misconception of "A Scanner Darkly" is that it is some sort of homage to "The Matrix" (1999). After all, it stars that-Neo-guy Keanu Reeves, is a futuristic thriller and employs some lesser-used visual styles. The rest of you who actually read the synopsis will know that while it is indeed based on the aforementioned novel; the story is of a group of drug addict friends hooked on a substance known as 'D'. Unbeknownst to them, one of their own, Bob Arctor (Keanu Reeves) is actually a narcotics agent who is assigned to infiltrate and monitor them so they can seize the drug ring and cease the distribution. Bob's seemingly frigid girlfriend Donna (Winona Ryder) is the key to climbing higher up the hierarchy to find who is really behind the drug but she herself seems to be hiding some secret. The agents work in total anonymity due to a shape-shifting suit that protects their identity and thus, nobody at the precinct knows who another is, instead using codenames such as 'Fred' and 'Hank'. Bob's 'friends', Barris (Robert Downey Jr.) and Luckman (Woody Harrelson) live in Orange County, California in the near future where they spend their time having almost illogical (and hilarious as a result) conversations that escalate from their paranoia. One of which surrounds the mystery of what happened to the rest of the 18 gears on Barris' mountain bike (Their logic being 6 at the front, 3 at the back : 6+3=9 instead of 6x3=18). Amidst stronger performances from Downey Jr. and Harrelson it is all too easy to put down Reeves' acting as stoic but I attest that his acting style is exactly what this character feels like it should be. This is reflected throughout "A Scanner Darkly" as Bob's state of mind slowly deteriorates due to his own 'D' addiction that spirals upward to gradually loosen his grip on reality and thus challenging his assignment to monitor the group. The first thing that you notice about the unique visuals is a result of the cell-shading technique known as rotoscoping which director Richard Linklater has also used to produce "Waking Life" (2001). Linklater has attributed it to a feeling of lucid dreaming. The rotoscoping provides an 'augmented reality', the characters are all identifiable and have a realness to them while any effects such as Bob's shape shifting suit don't look glaringly out of place as what would happen if a combination of CG and reality was used. By having "A Scanner Darkly" done in this manner, it also lends itself to complement Bob's hallucinations where Luckman and Barris at one stage turn into giant bugs; whereas traditional computer generated imagery would have felt too superimposed. The most astounding aspect of the rotoscoping process is that for each minute of the digital video it takes hundreds of hours to convert to the cell-shaded result. "A Scanner Darkly" will leave many movie-goers just as befuddled about the story as "Donnie Darko" (2001) does. This is what I love about it. But because many will view the plot as simply too convoluted to comprehend, it would be easy to ignore the questions spurred. Most of which can be answered by a repeat viewing (or you can simply cheat and look at Wikipedia or the IMDB listing : ahh the Internet!). My only dismay in the film was that it ended when there was so much more to explore (to which most others would scream blasphemy!), despite this I for one know I will be seeing this film more than once.
Video
Presented in a widescreen ratio of 1.78:1 this anamorphic transfer is pure brilliance, The animation comes across incredible well throughout with solid and sharp lines. Detail is beautifully rendered especially in close ups, the weight and blackness of the lines are bold and rich and the colours add another layer to the already impressive look of the film. The colours are vivid and lush, I found no evidence of dirt or compression related issues as far as I can tell this is another top notch transfer from Warner Brothers.
Audio
A single English Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track is included as well as an English Descriptive track for the sight impaired also presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. For the purposes of this review I viewed the film with its original English 5.1 track and found it as impressive as the transfer. Although there isn't a lot of action and that this film is predominantly dialogue driven the science fiction elements are never lost and as a result the mix is a rather subtle surround mix. The ambient surrounds are small yet effective enough to immerse the viewer, while dialogue is as expected clear and distortion free, additionally the films music takes advantage of the wide spaces the 5.1 platform provides. Optional subtitles are also included in English, English for the hearing impaired, Arabic, Hebrew, Greek and Icelandic.
Extras
First up we have a feature-length audio commentary with the film's writer/director Richard Linklater, producer Tom Pallotta, actor Keanu Reeves, Phillip K. Dick's daughter Isa Dick Hackett and author/historian Jonathan Lethem. During this track the participants discuss the adaptation process and relating to the characters. Isa talks about some of the real-life people that inspired some of the characters, Linklater comments on Dick's style of questioning reality and how the rotoscope animation style suits the shifting reality perspective. Other areas of conversation include the difficulty in pulling off this style of animation as well as focusing on the story elements, casting and directional choices taken during the short production process and the lengthy post-production process in regards to colors, lighting, smoothness of the animation and the near future aesthetic tone of the film among other things. Throughout the track it's mainly Linklater and producer Pallotta that provide the most insight while Isa occasionally chimes in with some background information, Reeves and Lethem mainly stay quiet for a large portion of the track. For the number of the participants involved in this track I was surprised that there were many silent gaps. Next up we have "One Summer in Austin: The Story of Filming 'A Scanner Darkly'", this is a featurette which runs for 26 minutes 25 seconds. This clip takes a look at Dick's thoughts on science fiction as well as his paranoid state that is reflected in the story. The cast comment on the weirdness of the script and a generous amount of praise is heaped over Linklater. The clip allows viewers an understanding of how challenging this story was to adapt as well as delving deeper into each main character and their backgrounds among other things. This is not an EPK clip and actually goes deeper into the story elements and characters but it's far too short and there is too much back-patting which gets a bit boring. Following that is "The Weight of the Line: Animation Tales", this is the second featurette on this disc and it runs for 20 minutes 46 seconds and as the title suggests it takes a look at the animation process which is similar to that of Linklater's previous film "Waking Life" (2001) expect that the animation is far more detailed. You get a sense for how difficult this method really is and the intense amount of hours that it takes to complete a minute of film (350 hours). It looks at how the animators were recruited and also how the work was shared around to more effectively turnover shots. This is an excellent clip that I wish it was longer than it actually was. Rounding out the extras is the film's original theatrical trailer which runs for 1 minute 54 seconds and is one of the best trailers ever made. To be honest I was a little disappointed with the extras, although they are well produced I would have loved a longer making-of, or even some sort of feature that looks at presenting a detailed progression of the animation process. I think that a film such as this which utilizes innovative techniques would have benefited from an equally innovative set of extra features for this DVD release.
Overall
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