'Matrix' actor Keanu Reeves lends his sci-fi cred to 'A Scanner Darkly,' while costars including Winona Ryder seem to offer an uncanny knowledge of the drug underworld. Visit the Photo Place

Reviews

'A Scanner Darkly' causes viewer to re-examine values

Date published: 1/25/2007

By ADDISON HERRON-WHEELER

YOUTH CORRESPONDENT

The latest offbeat independent film from Richard Linklater, "A Scanner Darkly," is set seven years from now in a world where a drug called Substance D has taken over the lives of many.

Based on a novel by Philip K. Dick, the film follows the lives of a group of friends both united and torn apart by the euphoria and the paranoia of a drug-filled life.

Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder star in the movie, which is filmed in a half-realistic, half-animated style that adds to the otherworldly feel.

The plot is full of twists and is, at times, very difficult to understand. It is the kind of movie most will have to watch more than once to get the full effect.

One of the four friends is secretly a cop, fighting Substance D and sporting a suit that disguises the identity of the wearer in an amorphous mass of men, women and children. While at the police station, this disguised figure watches through a video monitoring system all of the goings-on in the home the friends share.

Just when you think you've figured out who is who, what is what, which things are real and which are imaginary, it all gets turned upside down again. The surprise ending will challenge everything you think you know and make you question government, friendships, drug use, family, social standards and everything in between.

This movie is amazing, but a word to the wise: It can be a bit depressing and disturbing, so it is better to watch with friends than alone. (Just don't let the paranoia get to you!)

ADDISON HERRON-WHEELER is a junior at James Monroe High School.

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Date published: 1/25/2007