The Singing Detective, based upon the 1986 British television series of the same name, is a quirky film that combines comedy, drama, film-noir, and musical numbers in such a way that they form something quite unlike your typical Hollywood movie. It features the stellar cast of Robert Downey Jr., Mel Gibson, Robin Wright Penn, Katie Holmes, Jeremy Northam, and Adrien Brody among others, all of whom turn in great performances, particularly Downey in the lead role. While some may have difficulties getting past the oddness of this film, those who do will be rewarded.
Downey plays Dan Dark, a novelist of pulp detective fiction, who suffers from a severe case of psoriasis. While hospitalized from the body-covering rash, he begins to experience hallucinations that combine the plot of his first novel, 'The Singing Detective', people in his life now, and memories from his childhood. The events in the real world of the hospital, along with those only in his mind, form separate plots that meld into one emotional story.
As the hospitalized writer, Downey turns in an intense performance filled with bitterness, anger, sorrow, regret, and scathing humor, all while wearing full-body makeup that makes him look, in his words, “Like a human pizza.” In the alternate world of his mind, he plays ultra-cool detective Dan Dark, a film noir private eye (who moonlights as a nightclub crooner) investigating the death of a hooker, who, in his fevered brain, takes on the appearance of his wife and at times his mother.
The Freudian reasons behind this sublimation are revealed when Dan's doctor recommends him to a psychologist (an almost unrecognizable Mel Gibson in a scene-stealing role), who begins to probe Dark's subconscious. While Dark is at first reluctant and angry about seeing him, he eventually begins to talk about his past. It seems that the defining moment in Dark's childhood, which has affected him ever since, was seeing his mother having sex with her husband's business partner. The shock of seeing this scarred his outlook on life and women.
As Dark's sessions with the psychologist progress, along with a new medical treatment, his physical condition improves, but his hallucinations and paranoia continue to grow. He envisions his estranged wife (Robin Wright Penn) trying to betray him with a man who looks identical to his father's old business partner, and the villains from his detective story begin popping up within the hospital. The climax of the movie happens when all of his hallucinations collide within his head.
The result of this tangled web of fantasy and reality may sound complicated and odd, but at its most basic level, this movie entertains. It features some laugh-out-loud moments, (Katie Holmes as the nurse applying lotion to Dark's body while he fights against having an erection is one of the funniest scenes) as well as some serious drama. If you can accept the fact that more than half this movie takes place inside Dark's head and if you can accept the fact that the characters will break into song at the oddest moments, then you will no doubt be entertained. I know I was.
