For the most part the actors do a serviceable job, even if they appear at times unsure how to play a scene that'll later be animated. Reeves, in particular, seems to be compensating in places, and Robert Downey, Jr. plays his character with a full-fledged abandon that occasionally goes too far, but his portrayal of paranoia is as good as you'll find in film. Likewise, Rory Cochrane gives a very good performance as a man deeply addicted and struggling with demons that may or may not be real.

But in a film like this, nothing's actually "real". Everything is limited, in one way or another by perception--by what we think we see, by what everyone else thinks they see, and what the scanner sees. For these characters, though, what's most important, or at least of the most immediate concern, is what they think the scanners see. Such is the curse of paranoia.

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[1] It should be noted that Sabiston was replaced during production due to issues surrounding the amount of time it was taking for the animation to be completed. Still, the ideas and software are his.

[2] 1977, to be exact.

starring: Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey, Jr., Winona Ryder, Rory Cochrane, and Woody Harrelson
written by: Richard Linklater, based on the novel by Philip K. Dick
directed by: Richard Linklater
R, 100 min, 2006, USA