This is one for the dreamers. Waking Life, in theaters today, satiates a mental hunger for humankind's big questions. With innovative filming techniques and
a large and talented cast, the movie tackles concepts like the origins of man, free will, and collective intelligence.
Director Richard Linklater, who also wrote the script, has successfully achieved the near impossible task of expanding the already broad spectrum of filmmaking techniques. The film flows like a moving painting, with a revolutionary form of artistry that may take viewers a few minutes to adjust to. But when the story comes into focus, you'll realize the main concept of the film - there are different ways of perceiving life.
Wiley Wiggins (Dazed and Confused) wanders about a surreal dream world in search of... well, that's kind of up to you. The plot of Waking Life is amorphous. The scenes are connected by the narrator's (Wiggins) quest to understand the dream world in which he finds himself. The film is relentless - before you can make sense of one philosophy, the next has already been introduced. Most of the characters reveal themselves in conversation with the narrator, and there are constant uninterrupted rants that lend a feeling of authority and trustworthiness that simple dialogue does not.
The spectacular visual effects in Waking Life are the film's most impressive feature. The footage is mostly shot by Linklater himself on digital video, and then converted to animation with an apparatus called a Wacom tablet. The process, designed by animation director Bob Sabiston, is called rotoscoping, and it creates a hallucinatory appearance in which images rest on different planes that float freely. For example, the man driving the boat-shaped car is wearing a Hawaiian shirt. When the car moves to the left, the man's body may not. And if the man and his shirt go with the flow of the car, it doesn't mean the flowers on his shirt do.
The visually pleasing animation allows for a method of storytelling that live action can't achieve. Impressionist backgrounds draw attention to characters, who are works of art themselves. And Waking Life was constructed by a number of different animators, so each scene has its own personal feel. Some characters look like painted representations of reality, while other characters take on an impressionist look evoking the emotions and ideas that they discuss.
The soundtrack is the perfect companion to the animation, containing original music by newcomer composer Glover Gill. It's a hauntingly appropriate score, capturing moments of apprehension, danger, sensuality, and curiosity.
Ultimately, Waking Life is the narrator's quest to understand his dream world. At first, he is disoriented by his surreal environment and inability to escape from it. He cannot figure out when he is dreaming and when he is awake, but the characters in his dream world slowly begin to clarify the rules of his environment. It soon becomes easier for him to control the conversations and locations in which he finds himself. It's an interesting concept, since it's the narrator who creates these characters and "rules" in the first place.
The essence of Waking Life is captured by Sartre's philosophy that we exist because we believe we do. The film alludes to the philosopher's theory that the key to our existence lies within the belief that we can create our own existence. Add to that the concept of creating our own destinies, and the goal of the film's narrator becomes clear. Waking Life is an exploration of how we might create our own destinies by thinking in a dream world that has no boundaries. If this sounds like a bit much to swallow, it's probably because it is. The film isn't trying to prove anything - it just wants to remind us not to ignore the things we don't understand.
