|
|
The Singing Detective
on DVD (2003)
|
|
Brief synopsis of The Singing Detective
Director Keith Gordon (MOTHER NIGHT, WAKING THE DEAD) makes another brave adaptation with THE SINGING DETECTIVE. Based on Dennis Potter's stunningly brilliant 1986 mini-series of the same name, Gordon's version finds the film's troubled hero transplanted to 1950s America, not post-WWII London. Dan Dark (Robert Downey Jr.) is a pulp novelist in the thralls of a crippling skin disease that has rendered him delusional and immobile. Bitter, angry, and at the end of his tether, Dan manages to offend everyone he encounters. As he lies in bed, scenes from his novel swim into his mind, blurring with experiences from his own childhood. In the present, he remains paranoid that his ex-wife Nicola (Robin Wright Penn) is out to steal a script he wrote. Adding to his disgust are forced visits with an uptight psychotherapist, Dr. Gibbon (Mel Gibson), who is determined to make a breakthrough with his hateful patient. Along the way, Dan envisions several musical sequences, which appear out of nowhere and add glorious confusion to his fevered state. Gordon, working from a script that Potter himself wrote before his death, delivers an imaginary, vibrant film that is aided greatly by Robert Downey Jr.'s ferocious performance.
|
Related
Critics Reviews
Halliwell's Film Guide
Much less successful than the original BBC TV series, this has lost the dark urgency of the original, and its much shorter running time and transfer to an American setting also diminish it.
Members Reviews
Reviews Voted Most Helpful
Most Recent Reviews
|
|
