Set seven years in the future, Bob Arctor/Fred (Keanu Reeves) is an undercover agent for the Orange County Sheriffs Dept. He is supposed to work his way up the drug dealer food chain and get close to the higher ups. In the process he gets addicted to Substance D and his mind starts to compete with itself, don’t ask me, I’m just repeating what they said in the movie.

Meanwhile his girlfriend/dealer Donna (Winona Ryder) won’t let him get close to her, in more ways than one. His two roommates Bariss (Robert Downey Jr.) and Ernie (Woody Harrelson) are along for the ride. Throw in the super junkie Charles Freck (Rory Cochrane) and the cast of misfits is complete. That’s about all I can say without giving a lot away.

This was a very strange movie in many ways. Let’s tackle the visual style first. You probably know by now that this is animated using a process called rotoscoping. I don’t really know what it is and I am too lazy too look it up. Part of it is they film the scenes like a regular movie then place the animation over it frame by frame. To me it was fascinating and disconcerting at the same time almost to the point of being distracting. There were points in the movie where I found myself watching the animation rather than paying attention to what was going on with the story. And I can’t even begin to explain the scramble suits. They are used to hide the identities of undercover agents but beyond that, you have to see them for yourselves. I felt that they were unnecessary to the story. It seems to me that they were used as a way to show off the animation. I mean, there are other ways to hide your identity than a fucked up acid trip of a suit. I’ll bet if you saw one in real life it would cause an instant migraine.

I believe that the animation adds to the story but takes away from the acting of some of the performers in this. Except in Keanu Reeves case, Keanu is Keanu , although he does seem to be improving over time. I didn’t recognize Rory Cochrane at all. I actuallly had to look him up on the IMDB once I got home. You may remember him from “Dazed and Confused” or “Empire Records”. He played the most disturbed character in the film, Charles Freck. He reminded me of a cross between Oliver Platt and Benicio Del Toro, especially Del Toro’s Dr. Gonzo in :Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas:. I usually find Winona Ryder to be kind of whiny in most of her films but I actually enjoyed her character here. I felt Ryder’s and Cochrane’s performances are the ones who suffered from the animation. Robert Downey Jr and Woody Harrelson are the more entertaining of the cast. Harrelson looks like a surfer stoner and acts like one too. Downey plays this as he plays almost everything, paranoid and obsessive and just plain weird.

The story itself was hard enough to follow. Having never read the book I went into this without a clue as to what i would be seeing. It wasn’t until the very end that a lot of questions were answered. And some not answered at all. Such as, why was Bariss such a prick and who did Arctor actually sleep with? Why had the images changed not only when he was in bed, but also when he was reviewing the tapes? I have even looked on a few message boards for answers, but none were answered satisfactorily. I guess I will have to see it again and read the book, hopefully I will be able to understand more.

For those who don’t know my taste in drug related movies, I lean towards the comedic side as my step mother died from drugs when I was 17. I have recently reviewed movies such as “Killing Zoe” and “Drugstore Cowboy” and really didn’t care for those because of my personal experiences. But this film is a good blend of seriousness, comedy, science fiction with a little bit of mind fuck thrown in for good measure. I enjoyed it enough to recommend it to a few different types of moviegoers, the Phillip K.Dick fans, as Automatic told me that Linklater stayed pretty true to the novel. I would recommend it to animation fans who just want to see a cool looking movie. Also to mystery fans as well as Sci-Fi fans. It was decent, if somewhat confusing Sci-Fi/Drama flick that is worth a rent.