Directors seem intimidated by the rich plotting of science fiction writer Philip K. Dick.
Dick wrote noir stories infused with paranoia and a championing of the little people against the bureaucrats, no matter how doomed their struggle. Near-future innovations such as drug-enhanced prescience, shape-shifting and androids took prominent, ambiguous roles in his tales.
Containing all that energy in a Hollywood feature without damping down the paranoia is a challenge met only once in a while by adaptors. Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner” got it right, but the public didn’t respond. Steven Spielberg nailed the mood for the first half of “Minority Report,” then lost his nerve.
More forgettable attempts include “Paycheck,” “Screamers” and “Impostor.”
Richard Linklater continues the tradition of mixed results with “A Scanner Darkly,” adapted from one of Dick’s stories about the war on drugs. Dick’s own problems with drugs are caught up in the story; he divides his sympathies between addicts and narcotics agents trying to rid America of a scourge.
Linklater, who brought us such diverse efforts as “School of Rock,” “Before Sunrise” and a “Bad News Bears” remake, brings a powerful yet ultimately misguided gimmick to his attempt. As with his 2001 feature “Waking Life,” he shot a live-action movie, then used computers to animate his film with a paint-over process.
The result, starring Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder and Robert Downey Jr., is a graphic novel on screen, meant to reflect the exaggerated visions of Dick’s drug-addled world. Yet it never stops feeling like an experiment. The artiness gets in the way of thrilling plot twists; we’re still trying to sort out images when we should be sorting out facts. Perhaps that was Dick’s whole point, the world view of the addicted. But as moviemaking goes, it feels less than complete.
Reeves plays Fred, a drug investigator who wears a special identity-cloaking suit to stay undercover. That suit is the best innovation of Linklater’s animation: Hundreds of varied facial and body parts flash across the suit, so that a viewer never gets a fix on the real person.
Fred is investigating a group of drug users and dealers played by Downey, Ryder, Woody Harrelson and Rory Cochrane. They hang out in a filthy home holding long stoner conversations, of which Linklater the writer seems far too fond. But they also happen to live with a guy named Bob, who is the Keanu Reeves character when he takes off the shape suit.
The government, not knowing what Reeves the investigator really looks like, says Bob is the key to the whole ring; so Fred is investigating himself, undercover. That’s about as much sense as you’ll make of it, and it only gets infinitely more complex by the end.
Everyone is chasing a drug called Substance D, either to ingest it or eradicate it. The line between dealer and enforcer is always blurred; clearly some huge pharmacology organization is behind the distribution.
Before we get to the best plot twists, though, Linklater has dulled our senses with babbling monologues from Downey. Once again, Downey seems the most interesting person on screen, tantalizing a director into mishandling his talents.
Actually, the most interesting person on screen remains Dick, whose ideas since his untimely death in 1982 seem too powerful for mere mortals to translate. Let’s hope the best filmmakers keep trying, though, as his dark materials are too rich to ignore.
Staff writer Michael Booth can be reached at mbooth@denverpost.com; try the “Screen Team” blog at denverpostbloghouse .com.
