MORE CARTOONS ANYONE? TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED : "A SCANNER DARKLY"

Now, in telling its story, this film employs a rather original technique… Now, the whole thing is an animation, no doubt about that but the animated characters are real actors. Drawing of Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr, Woody Harrellson and Winona Rider (she’s the epitome of the 90’s as far as I’m concerned, it was a bit of a surprise to see her acting in a 2006 film if you see what I mean… ) parade around the screen making one feel decidedly odd. But odd is good in this particular case and experimental. Almost a nice mid-way solution for those who don’t particularly like animations, a wonder we didn’t think of it before… Apart from a few sci-fi details the whole film is set within “real” boundaries too, no weird space creatures (well there is a creature from another dimension but in context it’s actually quite acceptable), no one flying through the air… Serious and sci-fi never the less. And very thought provoking…
In the future – but not the too distant future – the world has become a much more totalitarian place… Security cameras are everywhere recording our every move, undercover cops everywhere trying to uncover God knows what… The biggest problem is D, also known as Death. That by the way is not a bad joke but the name of a highly addictive drug; little red pills that first give you a massive high and then of course, by degrees, destroy you. Bob Arctor (Keanu Reeves) is one of the good detectives working on the gangs selling “D”. He is undercover, completely so because at his office he wears a “scrambler suit” preventing him from being recognized and is known as Agent Fred. He spends time as Bob Arctor with a bunch of small-time dealers and addicts, trying to get to the “bigger picture”. However as the operation deepens, Arctor has to take more and more D to keep “in” with the suspects. Plus when he (Agent Fred) is given the bizarre directive of keeping an especially close eye on Bob Arctor things start getting tricky… And schizophrenic… In more senses than one…
It doesn’t take long to realize this is a very “anti system” film. Not anarchist in any way but anti-totalitarianism, anti-big companies having their own agendas and controlling everything. It’s sci-fi of course, none of it is based on real events but the dedication at the end seems to imply it is in the memory of security service agents who were irretrievably harmed in the line of duty. It isn’t a “down with everything” type of message though. This is very clearly a dystopia, “look, this is what we could become. Let us do our best not to be so”. And this should be done by being anti-totalitarianism of all kinds. Not letting anyone get too strong for the common good. It’s a good film and a good moment to stop and reflect on what could happen without freedom. Something we should possibly do more often…