Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

SnoopyStyle Detective story writer Dan Dark (Robert Downey Jr.) is hospitalized suffering full body lesions. The pain is causing hallucinations of hard-boiled detective characters. He is treated by Dr. Gibbon (Mel Gibson) and nurse Mills (Katie Holmes). He is demanding to have his novel 'The Singing Detective' from his wife (Robin Wright). He is hounded by two detectives in his dreams as well a vision of his mother (Carla Gugino) who took him from his father to live in rundown L.A.It's an intriguing idea. It may even work if the surreal dreamscape makes any sense at all. The dream work becomes a lot of nothing with bits of really interesting childhood recollections with his mother. After awhile, the hallucinations get repetitive and it ultimately goes nowhere.

Igenlode Wordsmith Hard to know how this would have come across without having seen the English version first; as a comparison after the recent BBC re-broadcast, I found it fascinating (and was interested to discover at the end that Dennis Potter was apparently responsible for his own adaptation).It's an exercise in transpositions, from a resonant period in English history and myth (the 1940s) to an equally mythologically resonant American era (the filling station; the desert; the gumshoe; rock'n'roll): a decade later, but it might almost as well be a generation apart. It's hard to tease apart the changes necessitated by Hollywood (younger, prettier, more sympathetic protagonists) and those required by the change of format from TV serial to cinema and the drastic cut in running time involved.Some changes work better than others. The main plot weathers the transposition amazingly intact, given the necessary omissions: this is achieved both by drastic cuts to the flashbacks (Potter's original tends to flash back to the same scene four or five times before the full sequence of events is revealed) and by excision of sub-plots, both of which can be done fairly painlessly. By moving the sick man to a private room rather than an NHS ward all the material relating to the other patients can be automatically removed, although this does require the relocation of the final shoot-out!Having young and beautiful protagonists doesn't work so well (apart from anything else we lose the killer plot twist where Nicola is told that she is too old for the part), and a middle-aged dance-hall crooner makes for a more plausible undercover detective than the thrashing lead singer in a boy band. But Los Angeles is a neat fit for London as the city of dreams that symbolises a escape from working-class drudgery, and of course the private eye set-up is heavily drawn from American thrillers in the first place, so the 'mean streets' are simply coming home. I was amused to note that in this version the two hit-men get to enjoy a gun each (cue for much squabbling in the original) -- it being presumably unthinkable for their American equivalents not to be tooled up -- but of course this makes the accusation of 'murder' rather a strained one to sustain in the culminating scene.I don't think the famous song and dance sequences (in which various supporting characters break into surreal dance routines) work so well in this version, unfortunately. The music may simply be less well suited to the treatment, or the characters more photogenic to start off with and the transformation thus less grotesque. At any rate it wasn't so funny and/or touching and didn't seem so effectively done either: much more obviously mimed.Robert Downey Jr is nonetheless very effective as the eponymous detective and his alter ego -- and of course we now have fascinating parallels with his recent stint as Sherlock Holmes, of which there are hints in his performance here.

MBunge This movie is a big screen adaptation of a 1986 British television series. I've never seen the original program but I have to assume it was unbelievably good, because that's the only possible thing that could have blinded everyone involved with this film from recognizing what an incredible mess it is.The Singing Detective is the story of Dan Dark (Robert Downey Jr.), a writer of detective stories who's been struck down by a painful and crippling skin condition. Virtually trapped in his hospital bed, Dark is beset by daydreams where he's the lead character in one of his own books and hallucinatory musical numbers where people start dancing and lip syncing to songs from the 1950s. Dark is also filled with a blinding rage and loathing for himself and almost everything around him, especially his wife (Robin Wright Penn), who he paranoically fantasizes is trying to screw him out of his share of a movie deal. Dark is assigned to the care of a psychotherapist named Dr. Gibbon (Mel Gibson), who tries to find out the source of Dark's self-crippling anger. That leads us to a bunch of flashbacks to Dark as a young boy and the tragic end of his cheating mother.If I had to guess, I'd say the point of this story is that Dark's physical and psychological problems are linked and his body cannot heal unless his mental and emotional wounds are also fixed. That's only a guess, though, because such a link is only alluded to in the film and never demonstrated. If you don't pay close attention, you might think it was just the opposite – that Dark's physical improvements are what enable his breakthroughs in therapy.The Singing Detective tries to be a whole bunch of things as a story but doesn't seem to understand how to actually be any of those things. It's supposed to be comedic, but it's not really funny. It's supposed to be a musical, but people lip sync instead of sing. I t's supposed to be dramatic, but the story's tone is so phony and artificial that there's no emotional impact when it tries to be serious. It's supposed to be fantastic by mixing up reality with Dark's delusions and daydreams, but it confuses up bizarre hallucinations, imaginary flights of fancy, paranoid obsessions and childhood memories. By the time two of Dark's fictional characters seemingly come to life in the real world, there's no real point to it all except a forced and deliberate effort to be "kooky" and "offbeat".The Singing Detective is more a flawed movie than a bad one. But its flaws are so basic and so emphatic that I was just waiting for the film to be over. As I wrote before, the original TV series must have been really, really good. Wasting my time with the movie version, however, has left me with absolutely no interest in finding out.

RagDolly Firstly, I have to admit, I haven't seen the original series "The Singing Detective", so I watched and am reviewing this film with fresh eyes.And I loved it. This film is about Dan Dark, and all the events are from his perspective or in his mind. This means that the story often changes focus and jumps about a bit. But this didn't bother me, probably because Robert Downey Jr gives such a brilliant and engaging performance, you are actually interested in the character's thoughts, as strange as they may be.The supporting cast, including some huge names, are fantastic as well. The film seems to have a bit of everything, comedy, romance, action, and interesting character developments and relationships. This film won't be for everyone, but I would definitely recommend it for it's unique style and a knock-out performance from Robert Downey Jr.