Nrh? Mrh? Erh? Mrr?

The Movie: A Scanner Darkly, directed by Richard Linklater
Reccomendation: Me.
Reason: The animation style was very intriguing, as was the casting.

I can't quite decide whether or not to like Keanu Reeves. On one hand, I'm grateful for the existence of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, and The Matrix trilogy. On the other, I'm not entirely sure he's the actor people think he is. In A Scanner Darkly, he played Bob, a drug enforcement double agent, an addict and a cop at the same time. With rotoscope animation and a decent cast backing him up, I thought he may be able to pull through a decent performance, but something about it fell flat. It felt like he had defaulted back on 'Neo' as a sort of default starting point and didn't get any farther. I'm not sure he's actor enough to carry such an important performance, especially in a movie like this.

I did enjoy the film, particularly Rory Cochrane's presence. I really connect with his sort of humor-it's even made watching CSI: Miami bearable (until he failed to learn from David Caruso's example and struck out on his own). He and Robert Downey Jr. managed to pull off a lot of the movie's dry wit and humor quite capably. The cool brain-bending sequences of Keanu-Bob going to the office were quite neat. I'm not familiar with the source material, but I thought that either Winona Ryder's character or her portrayal was a little limp. The music had its moments, though it did overwhelm a few times.

This was a good movie, a little convoluted, a little weak in spots. The animation was very well done, the style was admirably consistent and most importantly it didn't look as horrible as some previous experiments have been. I think the style lent itself nicely to the story as it was told, particularily the trippy nature of the drug being dealt with in the movie. Not a bad third movie.

-3/365 done, 362/365 to go