Electric Dreams: Crazy Diamond is a shining example of how star power can transcend even the thinnest of scripts - review
Oddly, the credits for Electric Dreams: Crazy Diamond, the latest in Channel 4’s series based on works by sci-fi author Philip K Dick, cited the short story Sales Pitch as its source. But nothing of Sales Pitch – a full-on spaceship-based assault on the dehumanising power of advertising – survived the adaptation process beyond the names of the main character Ed Morris (Steve Buscemi) and his wife Sally (Julia Davis).
Instead, last night we were treated to a distinctly earthbound, highly derivative Blade Runner-ish tale of a “synthetic” Jill (Sidse Babett Knudsen) attempting to forestall a terminal system failure by using her seductive powers to inveigle a dullard scientist (Buscemi) into helping her filch a phial of life-giving “quantum consciousness” from his laboratory.
Around an unnecessarily elaborate heist story was spun an inordinate quantity of padding and unconvincing eco-babble – about coastal erosion, “neural network equality” and a community policed by a security unit called Su, obviously, who was 40 per cent human and 60 per cent pig. Preposterous barely covers it.
The plot, through no discernible fault of Dick’s, had more gaping holes than your average rabbit warren. Still, it wasn’t without humour, intentional or otherwise. And mad as it was, Crazy Diamond did produce two memorably gemlike central performances.
Buscemi’s watery, world-weary eyes were filled throughout with a convincing confusion of sympathy and desire for the deeply damaged Jill. Knudsen, in turn, vamped it up magnificently, filling the empty space in Ed’s heart with noirish promises of adventure and unconventionality.
These were performances that left everything else – including a quietly sympathetic turn by Davis – feeling surplus to requirements. Even the ending, in which gutless Ed was ditched triumphantly by Sally and Jill, failed to pack the intended sardonic punch. But as a shining example of how star power can transcend even the thinnest of scripts, this would take some beating.
