Highly Overrated But Still Good

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The Singing Detective is surely not an easy movie to watch. Downey's cracked up skin makes it all the more difficult visually. Robert Downey Jr. plays the main character, Dan Dark. Dan is a writer of cheap, lurid detective novels, who is hospitalized for a severe case of psoriasis. He is shown to be in immense pain and is almost disabled from going about his normal routine due to the painful lesions. In the process he hallucinates to an extent that he cannot decipher the real from illusion due to which he is almost on the verge of losing his mind. He often lapses into a fantasy world in which he is the main character in his own novel. But soon the characters from the novel start to appear in the real world. We are taken on a journey into Dan Dark's dark & unpleasant mind? Downey, as always leaves his imprint as an actor par excellence. We meet Dan's wife, played by Robin Wright. Mel Gibson plays a rather strange psychologist who may well be able to help Dan if only Dan actually wanted to be helped. Doctor Gibbon helps Dan Dark deal with his bitterness that seems to have consumed him since he fell ill. Gibbon gets an insight into Mr Dark by reading his book, he then uses this to help Mr Dark on the road to his mental recovery. The movie is about how Dan Dark fights the demons he has created for himself and overcomes them to go on with his life.

*Spoiler/plot- The Singing Detective, 2003, An hospitalized 3rd rate hack writer of detective books suffering from his psychosomatic illness needs to free himself from his daydream fiction life of his alter ego, a singing detective to get mentally adjusted and well.*Special Stars- Robert Downey Jr, Robin Wright Penn, Adrien Brody, Jon Polito, Katie Holmes, Mel Gibson.*Theme- Your life could be a novel or a dream, it's up to you.*Trivia/location/goofs- Paramount Pictures, B & W film noir sequences with present day scenes, Rated 'R' for the multiple 40's sex scenes involving fictional call-girls and gangsters. Look for a heavily disguised famous lead actor & film producer on camera playing a helpful bald psychologist. Shot around downtown Los Angeles and the Silver Lake area.*Emotion- A rather crazy confusing film with too many 'flash-back' or dream sequences in film noir and back to plot present-day reality, but somewhat saved by the rest of the film's scenes and actors. It's all clues, with no solutions. This film has some spirited musical lip-sync songs with a killer 50's music tracks. It's a very odd plot and film.

Whatever merits Dennis Potter's drama had on TV they are completely obliterated in this large-screen Hollywood version. Whereas Potter's "Pennies from Heaven" transferred magnificently to the cinema, (for starters it had a plot, a sense of both time and place and some stunning musical numbers), this is both inconsequential and largely incomprehensible. (If I hadn't seen the television series I'm sure I would never have known what was going on). Not that working out what's happening is really worth the effort; it's fundamentally mediocre and since Potter himself did the adaptation we know where the blame lies. A decent cast, including a heavily disguised Mel Gibson, do their best with the material but no-one seems to be able to work up any enthusiasm. One to avoid.

This is one rather odd unusual movie. It mixes several movie elements such as comedy, musical and film-noir. It's however one mix that doesn't really work out and comes across as an odd one.It's also most certainly due to the confusing script that mixes truth and fiction and uses lots of flashback elements that also mixes past with 'present'. What is this movie really about? What story does it try to tell? Exactly what is the point of this entire movie and what does it try to achieve.The movie obviously tries to be an homage to the '50's and the '50's movie genre but it does so without having much style of its own. The clothes are right, the dialogs are right but the atmosphere really isn't, which is of course the most important element. The musical elements could had helped to let the movie work out better but the movie chooses to use evergreens instead new, specifically for this movie written songs. Also the fact that the actors are obviously play-backing to the real singers is a reason why it just doesn't ever work out in the movie. The movie tries to be stylish and fun but it's perhaps trying to hard, which causes it to work ineffective. This movie gave me the feeling that a different director could had still let this movie work out.The movie obviously doesn't try to be serious but it does this by actually having also very little humor in it. Yeah, you can say that this movie is a black comedy but this movie really isn't the best or most effective example in its genre.Too bad that the movie didn't really worked out, since it had a great and surprising cast. It was Robert Downey Jr's. first big role after his drug addiction. He of course got the role through his good friend Mel Gibson who is a producer of this movie. Downey Jr. does a good job and he once more shows how a great actor he is and how well he is capable of carrying a movie. Mel Gibson himself also plays a surprising role underneath a lot of make-up effects. The movie further more also features Adrien Brody in his first role since his Oscar-winning performance in "The Pianist". It really wasn't his greatest career choice.Has it's moments but in the end this movie leaves nothing more than a pointless and confusing impression.4/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/