Spoken words transforming into visual images; people becoming clouds; a man driving a boat down a city street; scenes change suddenly, not just in location, but in visual style as well—yet it all makes sense. Sound bizarre? Like a dream, perhaps? It's actually Waking Life, a wonderfully surreal, see-it-more-than-once movie that looks, sounds, and feels like a dream.
Done entirely with off-the-shelf digital equipment and Mac G4s, this is not so much a film as an experience. Using a kind of modern rotoscoping technique, live action becomes animation and a team of 30 animators, each following a single character, give each segment a unique style.
There is no traditionally recognizable plot, or conflict in Waking Life. It is 'about' the nature of reality—are we awake or are we dreaming? How do we know? The 'story' is the ongoing philosophical, metaphysical, esoteric and down to earth conversations between the main character and those he encounters, as well as conversations and scenes that we, as viewers, are drawn into, as if we are seeing these scenes from the perspective of this main character. But it is the film itself that most expresses the words and ideas.
Don't try to 'understand' Waking Life with the usual logic of every day Waking Life. There is far more going on visually than can be followed in one sitting. And don't try to follow the dialogue word-for-word. Just let the images and words carry you like a river. This movie is, like a dream, many layered and best absorbed by the spirit rather than analyzed by the brain.
See it at least twice. On a large screen. With friends who will discuss with you the meaning of life and whether or not this is all, in fact, just a dream. And if there are any lights turned on, every once in a while... well, just try to switch them off.
