Altered states

It’s a world not many will understand. And, hopefully, not many will have to live through. It is science fiction, after all.

It’s the world of undercover cop Fred. Fred is his given name, along with a futuristic scrambler suit which he must wear when he is on the job, to protect his identity while he mingles with drug dealers in order to bust a narcotics cartel. The narcotic is a highly addictive drug called ‘Substance D’ which leads to delusion and degeneration of the mind; and finally to death.

In his undercover role, Fred is ‘Substance D’ user and dealer Bob Arctor, living with and spying on his drug-dealing friends, and his equally-disreputable girl, all of whom are on ‘Substance D’. He hopes one of them will lead him to the source of the ‘Substance D’ cartel while, back at the Police Dept as special agent Fred, he watches recordings of his own life and that of his friends through holographic scanners.

It’s enough to disorient the best of us, but ‘A Scanner Darkly’ is a wonderful study of the consequences of excessive drug use… and the schizophrenic life that both addicts and undercover cops experience. Sometimes, to tragic ends.

‘A Scanner Darkly’ is Richard Linklater’s amazing film adaptation of Philip K Dick’s novel by the same name. Set in near-future America, the film deals with alienation and the sense of altered reality that one experiences with increased drug abuse. At a broader level, the film is concerned with the possibility of drug epidemics and the role of Corporate America in perpetuating this possibility.

Perhaps to create an effect of altered reality, director Linklater (better known for ‘Before Sunrise’ and ‘After Sunset’) has treated the film as an animation. He has used a technique called ‘interpolated rotoscoping’, first shooting the film with live actors and then animating it frame by frame, giving it a look of a comic book.

‘A Scanner Darkly’ stars Keanu Reeves (as Fred/Bob Arctor), Robert Downey Jr, Woody Harrelson, Winona Ryder and Rory Cochrane… and is definitely worth a watch. Particularly if you’re a sci-fi fan.