Thursday, May 28, 2009

Movie: A Scanner Darkly

A faithful, if abridged, adaptation of Philip K. Dick*’s novel. Undercover narcotics cop Fred is ordered to comprehensively investigate hardcore drug addict Bob; there’s just one problem ... Fred is Bob. Then comes the twist…
In a nearly inexplicable turn of movie production, the entire movie was filmed live, then hand-animated (rotoscoped) into stark, flat “posterized” coloring. Interesting result; save for one important visual effect I don’t see why they did it (“because it hadn’t been done” aside).
The book was significantly more depressing. The movie kinda hustles you thru the WTF elements, the book gives you full icky development thereof.
Upshot: a should-see for those fond of experimental mild-scifi tragedies; other people, not so much.

(* - PKD wrote the stories later turned into Blade Runner, Paycheck, Minority Report, and several other mind-benders.)