There are conflicting agendas in "A Scanner Darkly," which wants to be a film both about the intruding, invasive omnipresence of the government, and the struggles of those who find themselves addicted to life-altering drugs.
Thinking about other films that touch on similar subjects, from “Requiem For A Dream’s” personal drug saga to “Brazil’s” epic vision of a future, totalitarian world, it seems most movies must make a choice about the direction they want to go.
So it is odd to see both public and private story threads battle for attention in "Scanner," tugging at a story that wants to be both personal and profound.
It all starts with one man (Keanu Reeve), who on one side of the spectrum is Bob, an emerging drug addict, wasting away his days with his two stoner friends, Barris (Robert Downey Jr.) and Luckman (Woody Harrelson), and on the other end is Fred, a drug enforcement agent, charged with finding addicts much like his friends.
It’s a provocative premise, and one which touches on some the hypocrisy to be found in the drug trade – where we demonize drug addicts only to discover they are not monsters but everyday people, our friends and neighbors.
Set in the future, there is now a new super drug which, one character observes, divides humanity into two camps: Those who are addicted to Substance D, and those who have never tried it. And as Bob falls in love with Donna (Winona Ryder), she introduces him to the little red pills that will soon come to define his existence.
As Substance D slowly takes hold of Bob’s life, the quality of his work starts to slip. His bosses notice his deteriorating mental state and send him to be evaluated by government doctors. In an ironic twist, Fred is put on a desk assignment, observing Bob through security cameras as a potential drug kingpin. Yes, thanks to an identity-changing suit that keeps even agents from knowing their colleague’s true names or faces, Fred has been ordered to monitor himself.
This is the film’s most potent point – that with an omnipresent police state, everyone is watching everyone, and the identity of the watchers dissolves into anonymity. No one is responsible; no one is to blame.
The theme is enhanced by director Richard Linklater (“Waking Life,” “Before Sunset”) who again turns to a fascinating animation technique in which live-action is drawn over by computer animation, helping Fred’s futuristic work suit exist only as a series of flashing faces. It’s an effect that magnifies the film’s hallucinogenic drug trips and helps Linklater to create a landscape that is constantly floating and drifting.
As a story about Bob/Fred, and his friends, “Scanner” is a compelling creation. The trio has a strong, and funny, sense of chemistry, and as Substance D comes to divide them – in ways both comic and tragic – some powerful messages start to make their way into this seemingly-light hearted affair.
It’s only in the end, when the bolder comments about government conspiracies, betrayals and back-stabbings enter the equation, that this story of personal agony is uprooted and lost in the commotion. The awkward, but unmistakable, shift starts in a diner, during a conversation between two government agents. Only a few scenes later, it leads the story to an unlikely cornfield where the film delivers what it considers to be a startling revelation about the government-run Substance D treatment center – even though it’s a surprise we’ve anticipated for the last hour.
It’s rare when a film’s demise can be pinpointed so precisely, but such is the case with “A Scanner Darkly,” and so many of the films based on Philip K. Dick material. What should focus on the people so often gets distracted by the larger dramas of government or technology, forgetting that to make someone truly care about oppression, you must first help them to see the struggle through the eyes of the oppressed.

by: Steven Snyder steven@zertinet.com, Published 2006-07-16