Synopsis
An undercover cop in a not-too-distant future becomes involved with a dangerous new drug and begins to lose his own identity as a result.
Your Movie Library
Cast
- Keanu ReevesBob Arctor
- Robert Downey Jr.James Barris
- Woody HarrelsonErnie Luckman
- Winona RyderDonna Hawthorne
- Rory CochraneCharles Freck
- Mitch BakerBrown Bear Lodge Host
- Sean AllenAdditional Fred Scramble Suit Voice (voice)
- Cliff HabyVoice from Headquarters (voice)
- Steven Chester PrinceCop
- Natasha ValdezWaitress
Recommendations
- 80
Village Voice
Downey, who, having grasped that he's playing a cartoon character, delivers the most animated performance. (Midway through 2006, this supporting turn is the performance to beat in what seems the year's American movie to beat.) - 80
L.A. Weekly
As they (Robert Downey Jr. and Woody Harrelson) bicker and banter, threaten one another with small household objects, and try (unsuccessfully) to determine the number of gears on a bicycle, they display a combination of irritability and incompetence that is the soul of comedy. - 80
Salon
There's no other filmmaker, living or dead, who could produce a futuristic sci-fi nightmare, a hipster comedy, a haunting film noir and a cartoon, all in the same movie. - 75
Rolling Stone
This gifted writer-director isn't out to dull the masses with cinematic opium. Embedded in the visionary headtrip of A Scanner Darkly is a hotly political call to arms. - 70
Variety
Deeply intriguing but almost too-faithful adaptation of Philip K. Dick's nightmarish 1977 novel. - 67
The A.V. Club
Which makes it all the more frustrating that the film doesn't quite work, and that it drags from episode to episode--some are brilliant, most merely intriguing--with little momentum. - 67
Austin Chronicle
As a whole, the film has too little character and/or plot development to sustain narrative interest. What A Scanner Darkly excels at is mood and tone. - 63
ReelViews
If ever there was a movie more destined to become a cult phenomenon, I don't know if I can name it.
