X out of 10

Philip K. Dick’s 1977 novel A Scanner Darkly explored issues ranging from police surveillance to drug culture to the nature of consciousness, all united brilliantly under the umbrella of Dick’s eccentric, paranoid, borderline-schizophrenic style. Because A Scanner Darkly is among the tales most treasured by PKD’s legion of fans, and because its intricate plot is so difficult to present cinematically, movie producers have had a hands-off approach to this story for decades.

Fortunately, the capable cinematic eye of director Richard Linklater helped transform this complex story to film without bastardizing a brilliant concept (ahem, I’m looking at you, Minority Report and Paycheck, two other PKD story-to-film adaptations). Linklater’s method with this film was to capture the actors on tape, then later augment them using an animation technique called rotoscoping (if you’ve seen those realistically-animated Charles Schwab commercials on TV lately, you’re already familiar with the technique).

This type of semi-animation allows for a surreal experience that combines the endless possibilities of traditional animation with the unique range of emotions that can only be expressed by a real human face. The effect is stunning: cinematically-incompatible concepts like the Scramble Suit worn by the protagonist (a suit that conceals the wearers identity, making them blend in as an everyman) are suddenly possible. Bizarre drug trips are brought to life with frightening realism (the best of which involves a character attempting to kill himself by drinking wine and consuming downers, which instead causes him to have his sins read to him over the course of 11,000 years by a multi-eyed inter-dimensional being… yeah, you’d have to see it to really get it). And most importantly, the insane brilliance of Dick’s tale is, thankfully, preserved.

X = 9.5: delightfully intriguing, occasionally frustrating (but in a good way), and ultimately very enjoyable.

Buy A Scanner Darkly (Widescreen Edition) at Amazon.com