A Scanner Darkly (or, See Dick Run Mad)

My biggest question is WHY GOD WHY???

Rotoscoping is pretty and flashy and awe inspiring for about ten minutes then it simply becomes irritating and nauseating trickery.

I'm no fool. I understand that the whole freaky drug mindfuck film is probably the closest that rotoscoping is ever going to come being artistically justifiable. I was hoping... but no, it just didn't work. It is not that the process was a failure, it was more that I couldn't shake the feeling that the film would have been much more effective with crisp images and regular, run of the mill special effects. Hell, I'm not usually one to advocate for big budget CGI but I really think it would have been a more savvy choice here.

Now that my bitching is over. I'm a big fan of Dick (tee hee) and A Scanner Darkly is a solid adaptation of his most personal work. There is a good deal of mindfuckery going on around the cast of Hollywood's pre-eminent fuckups, Winona, Robert and Woody. Keanu almost-acts his way through the role of Frank/Robert/Bruce (actually I think the rotoscoping really works for him) though it isn't terribly demanding.

Given that over a decade has passed I would have thought that A Scanner Darkly would benefit from the drug-fuelled paranoia of Trainspotting but I left the film feeling that punches had been pulled and that, given the state of Dick when he wrote the novel, the film didn't enter into the headspace quite as well as well as it should have.

Recommended, if only because you'll need to make your mind up for yourself.