A Scanner Darkly, directed by Richard Linklater, is an animated film based on a 1977 novel by Philip K. Dick. The animation, evidently based on a performance on a soundstage, appears to be necessary because several characters are disguised in “scramble suits” with different appearances, changing for example from men into women within seconds. The movie’s timeframe is several years in the future. Bob Arctur (played by Keanu Reeves), an undercover narcotics officer, is addicted to Substance D (for death), but so are most of the other characters in the movie. All his friends are under surveillance in preparation for a drug bust, including his two housemates, James Barris (played by Robert Downey, Jr.) and Ernie Luckman (Woody Harrelson), as well as his drug dealer girlfriend, Donna (played by Winona Ryder). However, Arctur is also on camera a lot, since he frequents the same places where his friends reside. But the plot is soon lost somewhere in the scramble suits. Titles at the end of the film list many names of persons, evidently known to novelist Dick, whose lives were ruined by drug overdosing. In other words, because the film fails to convey the desired message, filmviewers are instead bludgeoned with the moral of the story by reading the variety of maladies that have afflicted various drug addicts, from brain damage to death. Dick, a drug addict who went through rehab at one point, died at the age of 53. MH
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