Waking Life (Richard Linklater, 2001): USA
Reviewed by Byron Potau. Viewed on DVD.
Director Richard Linklater’s philosophical Waking Life borrows its meandering structure from the director’s own indie hit Slacker, takes the main characters of another of his films, Before Sunrise, while also preceding the visual style of his later film A Scanner Darkly. If any of these films held any interest for you or if you tend to wonder about lucid dream states, free will, reality and consciousness, or the meaning of life then it is safe to say this film will be of some interest to you.
Our young male unnamed main character (Wiley Wiggins) is stuck in a dream he cannot awake from. At first he does not realize he is in a dream. He encounters one character after another, often during mundane daily activity like lying in bed, eating breakfast, and riding in a car. Each character he encounters offers some philosophical rant on topics ranging from behavior, dreams, reality, existence, and our place in the world. In some of these encounters our main character is a viewer, some a listener, and others an active participant in the conversation.
Shot on digital film and using a technique called interpolated rotoscoping to create its animation the film is brilliantly thought provoking and stands as one of the pinnacles of Linklater’s fine career.
The animation floats around like it’s resting on a waterbed and has a lifelike resemblance to the actual actors. It is very easy to recognize bigger name actors like Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy in their brief appearance.
The dialogue is brilliantly written and has an improvised, natural quality making it very believable and easy to listen to despite its heavy topics. Conversations range from one you might have with a college professor to one you might have with a surfer buddy on marijuana. Yet, all the conversations remain fascinating expressions of thought and only a rigid mind won’t find something interesting to ponder over.
It is very much a companion piece to Slacker with a more philosophical slant. Those who like that film will undoubtedly like this one. As for others, if philosophical films with a lot of talk and not a lot of action are not you cup of tea you will want to stay away. However, you would be missing out on a very daring and original film with a wealth of intriguing and contemplative conversations and ideas that you’re bound to have an opinion about.
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