The Singing Detective (2003)

User Rating:

5.5/10   

Director:

Keith Gordon

Writers:

Dennis Potter (screenplay)
Dennis Potter (television series)

Release Date:

14 November 2003 (UK)

Genre:

Comedy | Musical | Mystery

Tagline:

When it comes to murder, seduction and betrayal he wrote the book. Now he's living it!

Plot:

From his hospital bed, a writer suffering from a skin disease hallucinates musical numbers and paranoid plots.

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Book | Detective | 1950s | Disease

Awards:

1 win & 3 nominations

Cast

Robert Downey Jr.	...	Dan Dark
Robin Wright Penn	...	Nicola / Nina / Blonde
Mel Gibson	...	Dr. Gibbon
Jeremy Northam	...	Mark Binney
Katie Holmes	...	Nurse Mills
Adrien Brody	...	First Hood
Jon Polito	...	Second Hood
Carla Gugino	...	Betty Dark / Hooker
Saul Rubinek	...	Skin Specialist
Alfre Woodard	...	Chief of Staff
Amy Aquino	...	Nurse Nozhki
David Dorfman	...	Young Dan Dark
Eddie Jones	...	Moonglow Bartender
Lily Knight	...	Woman Physiotherapist
Clyde Kusatsu	...	Visiting Japanese Doctor

MPAA:

Rated R for strong sexual content, language and some violence.

Runtime:

109 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Germany:12 | Portugal:M/16 | Finland:K-15 | Spain:18 | Brazil:18 | USA:R (No. 39265) | New Zealand:R16 | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | Canada:14A | Singapore:M18 (re-rating) | Sweden:15 | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Icon Productions

Trivia:

While Dan Dark is in Binney's office, he picks up a statue of a Maltese Falcon.

Goofs:

Continuity: The position of Dark's gun hand when he chases the goons into the street after they try to kill him in the nightclub.

Quotes:

Dan Dark: So, what's the story? Who's the dame?
Mark Binney: How'd you know there's a dame?
Dan Dark: There's always a dame.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Anatomy of a Scene: The Singing Detective" (????)

Soundtrack:

Poison Ivy

An imperfect film for an imperfect world

Hey, I liked it. There were good things: Gibson unrecognizable as the shrink, Downey at his best, whacky story, pastiches of film noir, mind mystique, Touches of Freud, Jung... but it's not perfect. Some confusions persist: Downey as the frustrated, nonintrospective, horny writer whose imagination has taken over his life is often whining. His round-heeled mother has few redeeming features, the shifts between real and irrealis is jerky..., and so on. It's easy to find fault with a complex tale and one in which there are so many loose ends and ravelings but what do you take away with you when it's all said and done? Reading through the comments here, I came across the usual "I didn't like this..." and "I didn't like that..." comments. OK. Not every one likes pistachio ice cream. I love to see, hear and consider other views because it makes me reexamine my own impressions. Of interest to me was the recurring theme of confusion in these commentaries. I shared much of that because of the less than smooth transitions in the switches to irreality and the flashbacks. In films where the observers are given admittance to the inside of the performer's head, must be a melange of images, themes and mini-scenes because, alas, that's the way the mind works. So, from an audience perspective, it works for some and won't for others because, alas again, that is the way OUR minds work. Sorry to wax so psychiatrically but films like this one, as imperfect as it is, can tell us a lot about ourselves.