The making of : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B84ROb6MIZs
Part 2 : http://www.youtube.com/user/watchwutchyalike#p/a/u/0/VBEc5kP_wUI

The whacked-out environment and the surface gloss of animation makes it more difficult for the actor’s performances to make a deep connection, but Reeves in particular does extremely well, blank and monotone as we have come to expect, but full of emotion and despair as he moves inexorably to his own psychic breakdown, without the softening touch a note of hope would allow. The film calls for Reeves to deliver whole chunks of Dick’s precise, maddening prose in a dreamy voiceover, an insight into his interior descent as powerful as his outward decline. Downey Jr, Harrelson and Ryder have all, interestingly, had their own well-publicised drug addictions, lending some real-life weight to their anxious roles, even if Downey Jr plays Barris for laughs, Harrelson does an easy surf-bum and Ryder floats moodily through the piece, as if she is someone else, somewhere else. And perhaps, according to the noir-influenced Dick, she is.

... it's the lack of hope that gets me. every time I watch this movie.

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Again I say, he can communicate more in the tilt of his head than most people are capable of seeing.

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THAT.
(emphasis on most, though ;) )

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It's the only commentary Keanu has ever done to date.

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and I love, love, love this movie, and the book too...

I've watched most of the extras but haven't watched it with the commentary yet - saving it for the weekend when I can enjoy it thoroughly. When I saw he was listed in it for the commentary, my first thought was, "Whoa!" :D

Arya, transcendent. I love that word; it's perfect. And yeah, I wondered about the differences in the rotoscoping. It's really too bad it's so expensive; it's a beautiful art form. I've had the pleasure of observing middle-school kids learning to rotoscope on a field trip to an art college, and it's quite cool to see it done. (I've lived a very interesting life so far.)

http://tf2.gamebanana.com/sounds/20116

https://vimeo.com/70424831#at=0

“What does a scanner see? Into the head? Down into the heart? Does it see into me? Into us? Clearly or darkly? I hope it sees clearly because I can't any longer see into myself. I see only murk. I hope for everyone's sake the scanners do better, because if the scanner sees only darkly the way I do, then I'm cursed and cursed again."

Richard Linklater’s rotoscoped adaptation of Philip K Dick’s novel makes sparing use of narration, but it’s sublimely effective when it does. In one instance, it’s used for blackly comic effect. In two other scenes, we listen to the private thoughts of Bob Arctor (Keanu Reeves), an undercover cop in thrall to an addictive drug called Substance D. Taken almost verbatim from Dick’s novel, based on his own experiences in the 1970s, it’s pregnant with introspection, sadness and regret.

Reeves isn’t necessarily known for the power and range of his acting, but his voice-over work is outstanding in A Scanner Darkly. The story is about a character spying on himself and failing to recognise what he sees. The narration gives this blackly comic sci-fi drama an almost painfully raw, tragic edge.