'A Scanner Darkly': Alluring moments in a convoluted story

The works of sci-fi visionary Philip K. Dick have been catnip to diverse filmmakers such as Ridley Scott ("Blade Runner"), Steven Spielberg ("Minority Report"), Paul Verhoeven ("Total Recall") and John Woo ("Paycheck").

Now add Richard Linklater ("The School of Rock," "Dazed and Confused") to the list. "A Scanner Darkly" is based on Dick's 1977 novel which, in a sense, chronicled the author's own struggle with addiction as well as being a dead-eyed elegy for the many friends he'd lost to drugs. In fact, Linklater ends his film with the same dedication that ends the book: "This has been a story about people who were punished entirely too much for what they did," followed by a list of names with the designations "deceased," "brain damaged," etc.

Warner Independent Pictures 'A Scanner Darkly' C+ The verdict: As fascinating as it is confusing. Director: Richard Linklater Starring: Keanu Reeves, Mitch Baker, Robert Downey Jr., Winona Ryder, Woody Harrelson Run time: 100 minutes Release date: July 7, 2006 Rating: R for drug and sexual content, language and a brief violent image. See showtimes Meet the director Richard Linklater may be the best European director ever born in Texas. On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate 'A Scanner Darkly'   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

A daunting book to adapt in any form, Linklater uses the rotoscoping method we saw in his 2001 film "Waking Life" as a way in. That is, live actors are filmed and then digitally transformed into animated versions of themselves.

The decision to go this route is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the animation distracts us from the über-talky script; at times, "Scanner" is as verbose as any of Eric Rohmer's famously dialogue-heavy films.

On the other hand, well, the animation can be distracting, period. It's marvelously detailed, with everything from a ketchup bottle to a crumpled napkin to a border collie so real, yet not real. But the fascination of a faithfully re-created cigarette butt pulls us out of the narrative, making it difficult to connect with the characters and what happens to them.

Set "seven years from now" in a suburban area of Orange County, Calif., the movie tells us that 20 percent of the population is now hooked on something called Substance D. The D is for "darkness, despair, death," as one character says, but its pleasures are apparently too manifold to resist.

Small-time drug dealer Bob Arctor (Keanu Reeves) doesn't try. Neither do his druggie pals, hyper-verbal and not-very-nice James Barris (Robert Downey Jr. at his motor-mouthed best) and the more laid-back Ernie Luckman (Woody Harrelson, whose animated version oddly looks more like Owen Wilson than himself), with Bob's girlfriend, Donna (Winona Ryder), usually hanging around, too. The guys share Bob's rundown ranch house, which looks an awful lot like a '70s crash pad with its assorted ironies (an American flag on the ceiling) and too-drugged-to-bother clutter (a sink overflowing with dirty dishes).

The exceedingly convoluted plot pretty much hangs on one twist. Arctor is actually an undercover narc named Fred, but neither identity recognizes they're the same person. In effect, Fred is tracking down himself. How this is achieved is one of the movie's niftier effects. Fred wears something called a scramble suit that changes his appearance every nanosecond — pigtails replaced by a goatee replaced by eyeglasses — thus keeping his real identity a secret not only from himself but also from his superiors.

The film as a whole may be lacking in coherence and emotional punch, but there are some marvelous sequences. An addict who hallucinates bugs crawling all over him. A stoned conversation about the number of gears on a bike Ernie has just purchased (it perfectly captures that drugged-out obsession with minutia). Careening down an expressway in a car with no brakes.

And it's fun looking for repeated motifs that hint that even the story we're getting isn't the whole story. At one point, Fred addresses the members of the Brown Bear Lodge, Chapter 709, about the surveillance program. Later on, we see Bob's address, 709, on the door of his house.

To paraphrase Downey's take on Substance D ("You're either on it or you haven't tried it"), you're either on "A Scanner Darkly's" wavelength or you'll tire yourself out trying to get there. It's more or less up to you.