A Scanner Darkly

This weekend, a group of my friends and I decided to hit up the art house film theater and check out the newest installment of political and social commentary by writer/director Richard Linklater. His notable previous films include Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Tape, and most applicable to this film, Waking Life.

Four friends sit around and get high all the time. One of them works for the government, and is a spy to find out information on a specific company that offers treatment for an 'on the street' drug called D (Death.) The film follows Bob Archor (Keanu Reeves,) an undercover drug police officer, in his pursuit to expose the source of the drugs. Pretty standard plot.

When looking at the cast of characters, we have 4 people that we need to pay attention to Keanu Reeves ends up doing his usual shtick. Bumbling around, somewhat always confused, and always a half step behind the rest of the characters. He is a drug officer that gets addicted to the very drug that he's investigating.

Has anyone seen Narc? Seems to me that this is the same plot...

Winona Ryder has a few notable roles in the film, but in the end, her performance was stagnant. She appears in perhaps 30 total minutes in the film, and only seems to provide a shelf Keanu can lean on when experiencing his drugs.

The two best performances come from Woody Harrelson, and Robert Downy Jr. To these two men, who seem to get crappy parts in movies, I tip my hat. Downy seems to nail every aspect of his typical character. Though the story only affords us textbook druggie friends, Downy seems to dive into this character face first, and puts a real face to what I watched on the screen. Harrelson also seems to do the same thing, bringing his cutout to life. Their collective delivery of lines seems excellent and believable. Kudos to them! All other performances seemed dull, and regular.

A word about the effects added to this film: If anyone has seen Waking Life, it seems as if the film was imported into Photoshop, and run through a filter. For me, this isn't going to do anything but distract me from the point of the film. And since this film didn't strike me as anything special, the Photoshop-esque nature seemed flashy, and a desperate attempt to bring something 'new' and 'fresh' to an already overdone concept.

And the concept: The government is out to get us. In this story, the very company that provides the drug rehabilitation is the one producing the drugs in the first place. It's a cycle that we are all trapped in, so to speak. I don't want to get too much into the plot, as I don't like giving away anything, but I will say this: it seemed to me that there were several unnecessary scenes trying to make blatant points. Activist Alex Jones appears in the film for nearly 10 seconds before he is taken off by the police. He is speaking out against the government, and is then tazed and carried off in a police van.

I thought this movie was about drugs?

We are shown several images of people sitting around computers, hunched over their coffee and bagel, watching endless hours of video surveillance of people everywhere. But what is this adding to the film? It was completely dropped for what was already a struggling plot.

I'm sorry, but neat graphics, and Downy and Harrelson were not enough to save this film for me. It was entertaining to watch the two really bring characters to life, and in that, probably worth the watch. In terms of film making, and acting, the rest is just bunch of characters running around seemingly creating a story. Again, I'm sorry, but unless that does it for you, this film just didn’t work out for me.

Like gov'ment conspiracies? Think cooperation's run the world? This film is certainly your pick. But if flashy animation and Keanu don't carry films for you, I'm not sure this is worth the trip.

5.75 of 10, thanks to Downy and Harrelson's wacky drug adventures.