Fluentiama Perfect cast and a good story

Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Cissy Évelyne It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

ramsri007 The Singing Detective is surely not an easy movie to watch. Downey's cracked up skin makes it all the more difficult visually. Robert Downey Jr. plays the main character, Dan Dark. Dan is a writer of cheap, lurid detective novels, who is hospitalized for a severe case of psoriasis. He is shown to be in immense pain and is almost disabled from going about his normal routine due to the painful lesions. In the process he hallucinates to an extent that he cannot decipher the real from illusion due to which he is almost on the verge of losing his mind. He often lapses into a fantasy world in which he is the main character in his own novel. But soon the characters from the novel start to appear in the real world. We are taken on a journey into Dan Dark's dark & unpleasant mind? Downey, as always leaves his imprint as an actor par excellence. We meet Dan's wife, played by Robin Wright. Mel Gibson plays a rather strange psychologist who may well be able to help Dan if only Dan actually wanted to be helped. Doctor Gibbon helps Dan Dark deal with his bitterness that seems to have consumed him since he fell ill. Gibbon gets an insight into Mr Dark by reading his book, he then uses this to help Mr Dark on the road to his mental recovery. The movie is about how Dan Dark fights the demons he has created for himself and overcomes them to go on with his life.

hall895 The Singing Detective is a movie which defies description or explanation. Any attempt at a summation of the plot would be futile. It's a comedy, it's a musical, it's a mystery, it's film noir. Well, it has elements of all of those things anyway but the end product does not fit neatly into any category. Structure? The movie really has none. This means that, while it may be interesting, it often comes across as somewhat incoherent. Much of the movie seems to take place inside the main character's head. But that character is the most unreliable of narrators. He doesn't have any grasp on what is real so how can the audience? This is a movie you just have to try to figure out for yourself.Robert Downey, Jr. plays the main character, Dan Dark. Dan is a writer of cheap, lurid detective novels. Right now he finds himself laid up in the hospital with the worst case of psoriasis you've ever seen. He's in terrible pain, pretty much completely incapacitated and quite possibly losing his mind. He lapses into a fantasy world in which he is the main character in his own novel. But characters from the novel start to appear in the real world. Or do they? Are we still inside Dan Dark's mind? If so, how do we get out because inside Dan Dark's mind is not a particularly pleasant place to be.This carries on throughout the film, real world and fantasy worlds colliding. Even what seems obviously real may not be. We meet Dan's wife, played enigmatically by Robin Wright. She's cheating on him. Or does Dan just think she is so that is what is presented as reality? In flashbacks Carla Gugino plays Dan's mother. But then she shows up as an entirely different person in Dan's delusions. Mel Gibson plays a rather strange psychologist who may well be able to help Dan if only Dan actually wanted to be helped. Maybe Dan prefers to retreat into his own mind, into his fantasy world. Does this all come together in the end? Not really. You're left largely wondering what in the world it was that you just saw. But confusing though it may be the movie still manages to be pretty entertaining. Downey turns in an excellent performance. Wright and Gibson are very good as well. Adrien Brody and Katie Holmes are among the performers who are solid in smaller roles.The movie is well-acted all around and the story draws you in. But as you go deeper and deeper there is the sense the movie spirals a little bit out of control. Some structure would have helped. But if told in entirely straightforward fashion the story would not have been nearly as interesting. This movie is unique. Some will love it. Some will hate it. It is a movie which was an interesting experiment. Maybe you'll appreciate what was attempted here, maybe you won't. Everyone is going to have their own unique personal reaction to this movie. To each their own.

elshikh4 First off, a feeling that I can't hold; (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind – 2002) sure surpasses this one. Because while having nearly the same idea, (Confessions..) connected the psychically ill man (who makes up an imaginary world and lives it, to forget about his main complex) with bigger case; which was the informational deception during the 1960s and the 1970s. True that (The Singing Detective) managed perfectly to show the case of its physically/psychically ill lead and his world, however without further dimensions or deeper issues unless the matter of the artist who showcases himself, and all of his life, through his art; whether consciously or unconsciously, with some kind of a tribute to the culture of the 1940s (movies, novels, songs..).It's interesting, with a personage for a movie that got nothing to do with the flicks of the major studies. So there had to be Mad Mel to handle the job and produce the whole thing. But the movie overall looks a bit poor. For instance the climactic battle wasn't dazzling as I though it would be. The using of the old songs wasn't done artistically well; some of them were annoying, having a bad irony with the modern scenes (like the moment of Downey. Jr getting stand up by the help of his doctor). And the movie's numbers were anything but distinct; I wanted the major studies to be vexed, but no such luck!(Robert Downey. Jr) was the movie's center stage. He got a lot inside of him. Nevertheless, something around him didn't let him release all what he could have had for such a character, and I'm not talking about the script. Mel as doctor Gibbon (!!) was a joke more than a character, I bet he did it just to prove how he hates to be Mr. Hollywood action hero only. There are some brilliant moments, especially when the script is exploring the lead's past as a manuscript of a noir movie. Sorrowfully (The Singing Detective) couldn't be as highly lovely or impressive as its premise. It got many great points, but not in one great movie. Still a good one though. But not for all.

Martin Bradley Whatever merits Dennis Potter's drama had on TV they are completely obliterated in this large-screen Hollywood version. Whereas Potter's "Pennies from Heaven" transferred magnificently to the cinema, (for starters it had a plot, a sense of both time and place and some stunning musical numbers), this is both inconsequential and largely incomprehensible. (If I hadn't seen the television series I'm sure I would never have known what was going on). Not that working out what's happening is really worth the effort; it's fundamentally mediocre and since Potter himself did the adaptation we know where the blame lies. A decent cast, including a heavily disguised Mel Gibson, do their best with the material but no-one seems to be able to work up any enthusiasm. One to avoid.