posted by NotAnyRon on August 11, 2006; screened on July 16, 2006
Richard Linklater
-
2006
What does a scanner see? Into the head? Into the heart? Does it see into me? Clearly? Or darkly?
Those words are nearly thrown away in this film. In all honesty, I remember them only from the preview and can't place where, if at all, they appear in the actual film. But I believe they get to the heart of what the film is about. On its surface, the film concerns Bob (Keanu Reeves), a poor soul addicted to Substance D, the designer drug that has taken hold on all of humanity. It also concerns Fred, also played by Reeves, an undercover cop who has been charged to spy on Bob and the other people living in his house. Are Bob and Fred the same person? Assuming they are, do they know they are the same person? The film gives hints to the answers to these questions, but they are nothing more than hints.
Throughout the film, there are magnificent performances by the supporting cast. Woody Harrelson is having a great year after his hilariously paranoid performance in this film and his show-stealing cowboy in A Prairie Home Companion. Robert Downey, Jr. plays off of Harrelson and Reeves by finding a strange rationality in this crazy world that he almost seems sane. Eventually you realize that nobody is sane, especially not Downey's character, but he puts on a good front. Downey is also the key player in one of the film's most memorable and chilling scenes. If you see the film, you'll know exactly what I'm thinking of.
I must also mention the lovely animation. I speak of the actors as though they appear onscreen, and that is only partially true. Using a similar rotoscoping technique as Waking Life, Linklater has crafted an animated world of wonder. The actors are completely recognizable as themselves, but they are also a complete creation of the animation staff and the software they use. This technique allows Linklater to inject surrealistic scenes that would have been completely out of place in a live action film with effects. Instead, when bizarre occurrences happen in this film, such as people turning into bugs, it almost seems normal.
On the surface, this is a thrilling film about a cop who's chasing himself. It's about a world riddled with drugs and addicts, where no one seems to know what's real anymore. On a deeper level, it asks how well the scanner can see. I think this touches on who we are as human beings. No matter how close we think we may get to the people we love, we still can never see clearly into their soul. In fact, we may not even be able to see clearly into our own.