A Scanner Darkly

Tuesday night I finished Philip K. Dicks novel, A Scanner Darkly. This is a BRILLIANT book that ends up challenging the READERS sanity as much as it challenges the characters.

Then, last night, I went to see the film based off the book. My thoughts are that the animation was spot on PERFECT for the source material. The perspective on several items and scenes was just wrong. Like the viewers perseptions are all messed up... which is the exact feel the novel captures perfectly.

However, they re-arranged the order of events in the movie and it makes for less of an impact when certain items are revealed. I will not publish any spoilers here and discuss what those are... but if you've seen the movie and read the book, the impact of the movie is distinctly less than the novel.

Sadly, I cannot recoemmend the film if you have not read the novel. It's such a unique experience that I simply cannot know if someone who has not read it would feel. I would love to hear from someone who sees the film without the depth of the novel to fall back on.