The Singing Detective

The Singing Detective
by Keith Gordon

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• When it comes to murder, seduction and betrayal, pulp-fiction author Dan Dark (Downey) wrote the book. But now, he s living it. Languishing in a hospital room with an immobilizing condition, Dark has lost himself in the fictional world of his alter ego, a hardboiled detective and dance-band singer living in the 1950s Los Angeles. As Dark s grasp on reality continues to slip, he s placed under the

DVD Reviews of The Singing Detective

DVD Review: It's a Freudian Mystery Musical!
Summary: 3 Stars

"The Singing Detective" is adapted from the 1986 television miniseries of the same name, written by Dennis Potter, who also wrote the film's screenplay. The film defies categorization, and it may take the prize for the most genre-crossing film that I have seen. "The Singing Detective" is a mystery within a mystery, a comedy, a psychological drama, and a musical. Yes, a musical. The plot is nonlinear, jumping back and forth between Dan's ordeal in the hospital, his memories, and his hallucinations of various times and places. It takes the audience the better part of the film to figure out how it all fits together. In this way, the film is like a jigsaw puzzle of Dan's mind...a mystery to be unraveled. The other mystery is the one Dan's fictional detective is simultaneously trying to solve. I'm not sure why Dennis Potter made the detective a singer. This introduces a musical element into a story that is already so overcrowded that it can be difficult to decipher. "The Singing Detective" is the most overtly Freudian movie I've seen in ages. In fact, if there is any film to which it can be compared, it reminds me of Alfred Hitchcock's "Spellbound". Both films alternate between reality and stylized Freudian hallucinations. In both films, a man's past and his salvation, of which even he is not aware, are to be found in his hallucinations and the mystery solved with the help of a sympathetic psychoanalyst. Unlike "Spellbound", "The Singing Detective" could actually be called overbearing in its style, though.

"The Singing Detective" is genuinely hilarious at times. It elicited more than a few loud guffaws from the audience in my local theater. It's also to be commended for being clever and surprising. And Robert Downey, Jr. gives an impressive performance, as always. But the film's first act unfortunately does nothing to draw the audience into the story. On the contrary, it introduces some unattractive characters in a confusing manner and does more to put the audience off than anything. This may be attributable to the fact that "The Singing Detective" contains too much material for a film of this length, so it is obligated to dive right in instead of easing the audience into its frenetic mix of fantasy and reality. But if you get past the first half hour or so, it improves. Another element that is likely to alienate some of the film's audience is Dan's misogynistic tirades, which wore on my patience after a while. So I'm giving "The Singing Detective" a marginal recommendation. If you don't like non-linear methods of story-telling, garish imagery, and Freudian inferences, you won't like this film. If, on the other hand, you like (truly funny) cynical, vindictive, occasionally obscene humor and the aforementioned characteristics appeal to you, you might want to give "The Singing Detective" a try.

Description of The Singing Detective