There are two reasons to be excited about A Scanner Darkly.  First, it’s the latest rotoscoping effort from filmmaker Richard Linklater, following 2001’s trippy Waking Life.  Second, it’s based on the 1977 novel from Philip K. Dick, whose works have inspired movies like Blade Runner, Total Recall, and Minority Report.  What’s more (if you’re a Dick fan, anyway), Darkly is the most faithful adaptation of Dick’s stories to hit the big screen.

So does any of that mean Darkly is worth seeing?  Well, my bruthas and sistahs, it’s all a little hit and miss.  The rotoscoping (Linklater shoots the film normally with digital cameras, and a crew of animators hand-paint every frame) worked better in Life since that film didn’t really have any kind of cohesive plot.  In Darkly, it’s cool one second, and distracting the next.  On the other hand, the swirling story – it’s about a cop (Keanu Reeves) who essentially begins investigating himself while under deep cover in an attempt to crack a drug ring – could be enough to put viewers off their game.  That in conjunction with the non-traditional animation and the fact that the adaptation from Dick was almost a little too faithful left me a bit unsatisfied.  But it also made me feel like I’d been using, so maybe that’s a compliment.

The film is set seven years in the future, where a den of Southern California stoners are helplessly hooked to a new drug called Substance D, which an alarming percentage of the population is taking on a regular basis.  The government is hell-bent on stamping out the problem, even if that means putting every possible user under constant surveillance.  In other words, Dick’s story – penned at a time when he was at a paranoid, drug-fueled zenith – is more than a little prophetic.

Reeves seems like the wrong choice for the lead here, and his blandness managed to never make me too interested in his character.  The supporting cast, however, is electrifying.  Were this not an animated film, I’d bet Robert Downey, Jr. would be in the thick of things come awards season.  I would have rather watched a movie about his character, or even seen Downey take over Keanu’s role.  The thought of him spinning around in a circle chasing his own tail like a crazed animal is currently making me grin from ear to ear.

It’s quite simple, really.  If the animation in Life made you queasy or anxious, stay away from Darkly.  If you don’t like (slightly) futuristic stories with swirling, nearly nonsensical plots about paranoid Cheech and Chong wannabes, stay away from Darkly.  But, if you’re looking for some sort of alternative to a three-hour sequel to a bad film based on an amusement park ride, Darkly might be the picture for you.  Jesus, typing that last sentence made me feel like I’ve been strung out on Substance D for months…

1:40 – for drug and sexual content, language and a brief violent image