A Scanner Darkly Movie Review

A Scanner Darkly (2006)

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Written by: Philip K. Dick (novel "A Scanner Darkly"), Richard Linklater (screenplay)
Directed by: Richard Linklater
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson
Rated: R
Watch the trailer

Plot
An undercover cop in a not-too-distant future becomes involved with a dangerous new drug and begins to lose his own identity as a result.

Verdict
It's an interesting mind bender, but I was left waiting for the next step. This just kind of ends. I suppose it's fitting that the machine marches on, but that also leaves this flat. The visual presentation works well in conjunction with the story as we're left to ponder the edges of perception and reality, but this is more fun to discuss and consider than it is to watch. Writing my review made me like the story more.
It depends.

Review
To provide the unique look, the film was shot digitally and then animated through rotoscoping, a technique where the original footage is traced frame by frame.

This is a future where drugs are an epidemic and the police have the technology to send undercover cops in so deep that no one knows who they are, not even other cops. They wear scramble suits that obscure their appearance and voice so they can't be identified when they come in. This obscures their identity from each other and bosses. Fred (Keanu Reeves) is one of these undercover agents, and he's tasked with following Bob Arctor. The problem is that Fred's undercover identity is Bob Arctor. While the bosses know that one of three guys in the drug house is the undercover, they don't know which one.

Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder play Bob, Donna

Unfortunately while Bob is undercover, he is using. The drug splits your brain so Bob is losing his grip on reality, unable to separate his dual lives. We wonder if he had a family before he went undercover. We see a few quick snippets, but he doesn't know, and thus we don't know. It seems likely he did, but he's having trouble distinguishing reality from what's in his mind. He's spying on himself, watching his own home. We're not sure who knows what. Do his bosses really not know which one he is? Is anything Bob reports even reliable?

Keanu Reeves plays Bob Arctor

This is punctuated by conversations between Bob's housemates, rambling conversations from addicts that have a loose grip on reality. That's the direction Bob's heading. The movie becomes more disconnected as Bob loses his grasp on reality.

Bob's handler is pushing him to buy enough of the drug from his friend Donna (Winona Ryder) that she leads him to her supplier. The problem is that Donna is also an undercover and she's Bob's handler. Her mission is to find the source of the drug, and to do that she needs an addict they can send to a treatment center, New Path. The cops think they are creating the drug. They're using patients to pick the flowers to manufacture it. That addict ends up being Bob, who by the end doesn't know which way is up.

The scramble suit

This ends up being a question of whether the ends justify the means. Bob was a means to infiltrate, a sacrifice. Whether he'll have enough self awareness to even be helpful seems doubtful. He talks about bringing the flowers that create the drug back to his friends. Is that back to the cops or to his drug buddies? With that, who is worse? The police or New Path? They both created an addict. New Path did it for profit, the police in vain hope.

The animation adds to the story, divorcing this from reality and allowing to create a visually believable scramble suit. The problem is I liked this more after thinking about it and writing a review than when I was watching this. I didn't realize Bob was a sacrifice from the beginning. I'm sure the confusion is intentional, making us feel like Bob where we're sure the pieces are there but we're grasping out how they fit. Writing a review helped me connect the pieces, and watching this again might be more fun.