REEL CRITICS -- DOUBLE TAKE:Is it live, or is it Keanu?

Philip K. Dick penned a lot of stories about alternate realities that were made into successful films: “Minority Report,” “Total Recall” and especially “Blade Runner.” Now, the movie “A Scanner Darkly,” adapted and directed by Richard Linklater, gives us another version of the future that is eerily starting to look much like the present.

It is the second film Linklater has done using the “rotoscoping” technique, a form of animation in which live action footage is drawn over. Images are as fluid as a giant lava lamp, and while it lends itself well to the mood of the story, it also serves to distract from a thin plot.

More than 20% of the population is strung out on a drug known as Substance D, and the police are doing major surveillance with the aid of undercover agents who wear “scrambler suits” that morph their bodies into thousands of different people, keeping their identities safe.

One of these agents is Fred (Keanu Reeves), who’s working on a big case. But Fred is also Bob Arctor, a major drug abuser who, like the audience, is starting to lose track of who he is.

Bob shares his shabby home with the eclectic Jim Barris (Robert Downey, Jr.) and loopy Ernie Luckman (Woody Harrelson), and their stoned, paranoid yammering takes up much of the film’s running time.

“A Scanner Darkly” has elements of film noir, sci-fi and slacker movies all rolled into one. Visually fascinating, much of the story is elusive, and Reeves’ perpetually laid-back persona is scarcely interesting enough for one character, let alone two.

Only the motor-mouthed Downey and Harrelson are animated enough to make the screen truly come alive.