Chemical-laced reality and seething paranoia collapse and melt into one another throughout writer/director Richard Linklater's mostly faithful adaptation of Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly. Eerie, liquid animation (first utilized in Linklater's 2001 existential odyssey Waking Life and thereafter quickly marginalized in dozens of Charles Schwab commercials) provides an unstable setting for Dick's nihilistic cautionary tale about drug addiction.

And while the fluid, floating images are in and of themselves trippy, the striking visual aesthetic threatens to overwhelm Linklater's dense, occasionally discombobulated dialogue – ideas worth pondering are being espoused, but often, you're too busy admiring the details of such eye-poppers as the "scramble suit." But I'm getting ahead of myself – the film opens, "seven years from now," as Anaheim undercover narc Fred (Keanu Reeves) blithely delivers an anti-drug speech to a local men's group. He returns to headquarters afterward, burned out and disillusioned. Summoned to submit to a battery of psychological tests, Fred learns that all may not be well in his head. Soon after, Fred is charged with investigating a local man named Bob Arctor, who may or may not be involved with trafficking the lethal narcotic known as Substance D.

Did I mention that Fred is Bob Arctor?

Fred/Bob's life soon collapses into a haze of surreal encounters – his roommates Ernie (Woody Harrelson) and James (Robert Downey Jr.) are epic wackos – and frustrated romantic liaisons with on-off girlfriend Donna Hawthorne (Winona Ryder). As his job and his private life bleed into one another with alarming frequency, Fred/Bob finds himself questioning where his nightmares end and reality begins.

A Scanner Darkly is cult material through and through – serpentine monologues about existence married to woozy set pieces guaranteed that the multiplex crowd didn't exactly beat a path in its direction, yet Linklater's film can't help but feel slight. There's no lack of ideas coursing through the narrative, but the elliptical story and bleak conclusion leave a sense of non-resolution. You want for more of a revelation at the climax, rather that the slow dawning of realization that as an allegory, A Scanner Darkly is a bit on the thin side. With such potent material at his disposal, it's unfortunate that Linklater wasn't able to generate a more explosive end result – one gets the sense that Linklater is such a big fan of Dick's work that he hewed too closely to the novel, rather using Dick's writing as a jumping off point.

Linklater's cast is game, however, and helps elevate sequences that would otherwise drag; Harrelson and Downey, in particular, steal scenes with assured regularity and Dazed & Confused alum Rory Cochrane is a twitchy delight as tweaked-out Charles Freck. Head animator Bob Sabiston's loopy work here is less distracting than in the violently creative Waking Life, but the novelty is still enough to be a borderline burden – A Scanner Darkly is mesmerizing at times, but can't sustain the sense of wonder.

"This is fucked up," intones Thom Yorke over the closing credits. Yeah, but not necessarily in a good way.

The Video:

A Scanner Darkly relies heavily on slick visuals and as such, its 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer is appropriately stunning -- vivid colors, rich black levels and nary a hint of imperfection. From the kinetic scramble suit to the harrowing hallucinations, this is an exceptional looking disc, one which should well please fans of the film.

Matching the image step for step is the full-bodied, crisp Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack -- subtle is the name of the game here, as Linklater utilizes the surround channels more for atmosphere than anything else. The haunting score fills in nicely and the copious dialogue is clean and clear, free from distortion. Optional English, French and Spanish subtitles are also included.

Supplementally speaking, A Scanner Darkly arrives with a small but worthy batch: Linklater sits for an informative, if not exactly lively, commentary track with Reeves, producer Tommy Pallotta, author/Dick historian Jonathan Lethem and Dick's daughter, Isa Dick Hackett joining him in the room. It's a bit slow-going at first, but nuggets of information do pop out of the occasionally still-born conversation. The 26 minute, 23 second featurette "One Summer in Austin: The Story of Filming 'A Scanner Darkly'," is presented in fullscreen and details the making of Linklater's film while the 20 minute, 44 second fullscreen featurette "The Weight of the Line: Animation Tales," explores the fantastic work of Bob Sabiston and his team of animators, with the theatrical trailer, presented in anamorphic widescreen, rounding out the disc.

Chemical-laced reality and seething paranoia collapse and melt into one another throughout writer/director Richard Linklater's mostly faithful adaptation of Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly. With such potent material at his disposal, it's unfortunate that Linklater wasn't able to generate a more explosive end result – one gets the sense that Linklater is such a big fan of Dick's work that he hewed too closely to the novel, rather using Dick's writing as a jumping off point. Nevertheless, the sumptuous, inventive visuals merit, at the very least, a once-over. Recommended.