"A Scanner Darkly" **1/2 (out of four): Richard Linklater's rotoscopic adaptation of the Philip K. Dick novel is never quite as compelling as the performances and the animation make it out to be.

Site-specific note: Robert Downey Jr.’s character is heard to say “Yes but no but yes” in this movie. Make of that what you will.

The writer Philip K. Dick has inspired Hollywood to both highs (“Blade Runner”, “Minority Report”) and lows (“Paycheck”, “Imposter”) with his cautionary tales set in very recognizable futures. On paper it would seem that Richard Linklater is a perfect choice for adapting a Philip K. Dick novel. The writer-director tends to traffic in a kind of peripheral, druggie subculture (“Slacker”, “Dazed and Confused”, “Waking Life”) and Mr. Dick is known to have experimented with more than his fair share of substances. Further, the animation technique called rotoscoping that Mr. Linklater has almost single-handedly evolved from music-video-novelty (a-ha’s “Take on Me” instantly springs to mind) to a viable storytelling medium would seem a perfect canvas against which to tell one of Mr. Dick’s stories. The resulting film, “A Scanner Darkly”, is relentlessly interesting to watch if somewhat less than compelling as a film.

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