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The Singing Detective
(Reviewed October 25, 2003)
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What an incredible disappointment. Almost everything about this movie version of Dennis Potter's wonderful British TV series seems calculated to subvert the script (written by Potter himself). Most of the
casting (especially that of the title character) is terrible. The direction is flat and uninspired. And the whole project looks as cheap as a public access all-amateurs TV show.
Robert Downey Jr. is wrong, wrong, relentlessly wrong as the lead, a writer who is both a hospital patient with a horrible skin disease and that writer's fictional pulp-novel private detective
alter-ego. Michael Gambon had the role in the TV miniseries, and was perfectly convincing as a bitter, cantankerous crank who was "getting on in years." Downey is far too young for the character,
however, and comes off more as a spoiled, snooty prick than as a sad, nasty, but fitfully endearing old wretch.
Katie Holmes of TV's "Dawson's Creek," playing a perky nurse, is about as colorless as cardboard cuties come -- the diametric opposite of smokey, sultry, but somehow sweetly sexy Joanne Whalley in the original miniseries. Mel Gibson, in a bald wig and thick glasses, seems to be channeling the
unctuously schmaltzy Robin Williams as Downey's oh-so-patient psychiatrist. Like the TV series, this version has characters break into period songs on occasion (a Potter trademark), but the movie's songs
are from the American 1950s instead of the British 1940s, which takes away a lot of the original's exotic charm. (The setting here also has been changed from England to California, although Potter's script
for the movie originally moved the action not to California but to Chicago. Confused yet?)
The only actors I liked in this movie play small supporting roles. Adrien Brody and Jon Polito are great as motivationally confused gangsters who come to realize they are in a story with "all clues,
no solutions" (as the movie's slogan puts it). And Jeremy Northam and Carla Gugino are good in dual roles. But they are not enough to keep this movie from coming off like a cheap, shoddy roadshow
version of a genuine classic.
The only thing that keeps me from giving this version an "F" is the fact that I can recognize (with difficulty, granted) things I still like about the writing. (Hey, Shakespeare
performed by a company of retards still would be Shakespeare. Right?) (Just call me "Mr. Sensitive.")
The money you would spend for tickets, parking, popcorn and drinks probably would go a long way toward paying for the DVD box set of the original "Singing Detective" six-part TV series. (It's a mere $43.19 as of October 26, 2003, at deepdiscountdvd.com, my favorite DVD website. End of free plug.)
A word to the wise...
Back Row Grade: D-
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