A Scanner Darkly, 2006, Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey, Jr., Woody Harrelson, Winona Ryder
A Scanner Darkly is a 2006 film by Richard Linklater based on the Philip K. Dick novel of the same name. The film tells the story of identity and deception in a near-future dystopia constantly monitored by intensive high-technology police surveillance in the midst of a huge drug addiction epidemic. To give the film its distinct look, the movie was filmed digitally and then animated using interpolated rotoscope over the original footage.
The film was written and directed by Richard Linklater, and it stars Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, Woody Harrelson, Robert Downey, Jr., and Rory Cochrane. Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney are among the film's executive producers. A Scanner Darkly was released in July 2006 in limited release, and then widely released later that month. The movie was screened at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival and the 2006 Seattle International Film Festival. The film was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form in 2007.
Having never been intended for mainstream audiences, the film opened in seventeen theaters and grossed $391,672 for a per-theater average of $23,039. The film saw some expansion in later weeks and ultimately grossed $5.5 million domestically and $7.6 million worldwide, earning back its $6 million production budget. While this was far from a smash hit (and was a small gross compared to several of the starring actors' past releases), the film fared quite well in limited release, especially considering the release of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest in the same weekend, and fared much better than director Richard Linklater's other feature, Fast Food Nation, released the same year.
A Scanner Darkly opened on July 7, 2006 to mixed reviews, with critics disagreeing over the film's merits. Carina Chocano of the Los Angeles Times found the film "engrossing" and wrote that "the brilliance of [the film] is how it suggests, without bombast or fanfare, the ways in which the real world has come to resemble the dark world of comic books." Similarly, Matthew Turner of ViewLondon, believing the film to be "engaging" and "beautifully animated," also praised the film for its "superb performances" and original, thought-provoking screenplay.
However, several critics were distanced by the film's content and thematic elements. James Berardinelli awarded the film two and a half stars (out of four), noting that the film suffers from an "inability to draw in the viewer." He also noted that the film "is not involving on an emotional level" and that the general theme of the film is "well-trodden." Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly was also unimpressed, awarding the film a final rating of "C-," writing that the film is "more fun to think about than [it] is to experience." He also found the film to follow a confusing narrative and that the storyline "goes nowhere." Overall, the film holds a 67% "Fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes, with an average critical rating of 6.7/10.Wikipedia
