The Singing Detective
Tags: neo noir, murder, violence, alternate reality, flashback, psychedelic

Plot synopsis:
Mystery writer Philip E. Marlow is suffering writer's block and is hospitalised because his psoriatic arthropathy, a chronic skin and joint disease, is at an acute stage forming lesions and sores over his entire body, and partially cripples his hands and feet. Dennis Potter suffered from this disease himself, and he wrote with a pen tied to his fist in much the same fashion Marlow does in the last episode. Although severe, Marlow's condition was intentionally understated compared to Potter's whose skin would sometimes crack and bleed.
As a result of constant pain, a fever caused by the condition, and his refusal to take medication, Marlow falls into a fantasy world involving his Chandleresque novel, The Singing Detective, an escapist adventure about a detective (also named "Philip Marlow") who sings at a dance hall and takes the jobs "the guys who don't sing" won't take. Writers will recognize that, like Potter, Marlow is "plot-dreaming," trying out various solutions to a working plot in his head, deciding as he goes what plot element works best with what character or situation, interspersed with bits of ideas that occur to him off the wall, and discarding (with some afterthoughts) parts of his story that no longer work when other changes have been made.
The real Marlow also experiences flashbacks to his childhood in rural England, and his mother's life in wartime London. The rural location is presumably the Forest of Dean, Potter's birthplace and the location for filming, but this is never stated explicitly (though the young Philip's references to his home in "the Forest" come close). The suicide of his mother is one of several recurring images in the series; Marlow uses it (whether subconsciously or not) in his murder mystery, and sometimes replaces her face with different women in his life, real and imaginary. The noir mystery, however, is never actually solved; all that is ultimately revealed is an intentionally vague plot involving smuggled Nazi war criminals being protected by the Allies and Soviet agents attempting to stop them. This perhaps reflects Marlow's view that fiction should be "all clues and no solutions".
The three worlds of the hospital, the noir thriller, and wartime England often merge in Marlow's mind, resulting in a fourth layer, in which character interactions that would otherwise be impossible (e.g. fictional characters interacting with non-fictional characters) occur. This is evident in that many of Marlow's friends and enemies (perceived or otherwise) are represented by characters in the novel: particularly, Raymond, Marlow's mother's lover, appears as the central antagonist in the "real" and noir worlds (although the "real" Binney/Finney is ultimately a fantasy as well). The use of Binney as a villain stems from the fact that Binney committed fornication with Marlow's mum and simultaneously (and perhaps publicly) cuckolded Marlow's dad, who Marlow loved. Marlow's own guilt at his apparent belief that he caused his parents' separation and even his mother's suicide is exacerbated by his early childhood memory when he framed young Mark Binney for defecating on the desk of a disciplinarian elementary teacher (Janet Henfrey). The innocent Binney is brutally beaten in front of the classroom, and Marlow is lauded for telling the "truth". All of these events haunt Marlow, and one of the shadowy villains who apparently is determined to kill Marlow looks very much like an adult version of the real child, Mark Binney. The real Mark Binney eventually ends up in a mental institution, as Marlow confesses later to the psychiatrist. The villainous Binney/Finney character is killed off in both realities. It is suggested that in each reality, the guilt of Binney/Finney/Mark is entirely the product of Marlow's imagination as in one case, Finney the wife's lover does not exist, in the other it is the name of the character Marlow chooses as the guilty party and the boy's guilt is a lie told by Marlow to his teacher. However, in the end, Marlow chooses a killer, who looks more like adult Binney, to live, and himself to die, thus showing growth. Janet Henfrey has previously played the same character in Potter's earlier TV play Stand Up, Nigel Barton.
Some members of the cast play multiple roles. Marlow and his alter-ego, the singing detective, are both played by Gambon. Marlow as a boy is played by Lyndon Davies. Mark Binney (schoolboy) is played by William Speakman. Davies and Speakman were contemporaries at Chosen Hill school in Gloucestershire, close to Potter's birthplace of the Forest of Dean. Patrick Malahide plays three central characters—the contemporary Finney, who Marlow thinks is having an affair with his ex-wife Nicola, played by Janet Suzman; the imaginary Binney, a central character in the murder plot; and Raymond, a friend of Marlow's father who has an affair with his mother (Alison Steadman). Steadman plays both Marlow's mother, and the mysterious "Lili", one of the murder victims. At the end of the serial Marlow and Nicola appear to have repaired their relationship.

Review: Because its style and subject matter are somewhat off-putting at first, 'The Singing Detective' takes a bit of getting used to, but eventually the themes and stylistic elements begin to come together and the film takes off.
Still, towards the end of the film, when Dan starts to make some profound psychological breakthroughs, the fantasy scenes actually do begin to work and the complex structure pays off.
I couldn't find any real flaws in any aspect of the film (direction was above average, acting was great, music was very good and appropriate) but still I did not feel like I have just watched a great movie.
His performance is extraordinary: the sublety of his mood changes and facial reactions, and the pathos he draws out of this trapped character (without a hint of schmaltz) just leap off the screen (even more remarkable given that for some of the time he was wearing makeup that took hours to apply and initially caused a bad skin reaction;and that he was under threat of returning to jail on drugs charges, which is why the film had to be shot in LA rather than Chicago - he was not allowed to leave LA).I guess Downey's messy private life is one of the reasons he's such an interesting and complex actor.
There were good things:  Gibson unrecognizable as the shrink, Downey at his best, whacky story, pastiches of film noir, mind mystique, Touches of Freud, Jung...
His debilitating skin and bone infection of extreme psoriasis have landed him in the hospital but provide him with the opportunity to dream about his choleric mother and tramp wife as well as place the hospital staff in cheesy '50's musicals.In Keith Gordon's 'Singing Detective,' Downey brings his own life of addictions, which have truncated his career and left him dangerous to hire.
If you don't have time to watch Dennis Potter's landmark TV miniseries (also available on home video), Potter's screenplay for this movie version (written 2 years before his untimely death) does a great job of condensing the story of novelist Dan Dark's (Robert Downey Jr.) battle with severe chronic psoriasis and personal demons.
Each and every member of the stellar cast is letter-perfect, with particularly good, sharp chemistry between Downey and, respectively, Robin Wright Penn (I've always loved her name; it's especially appropriate for someone playing a writer's wife :-), and producer Mel Gibson (as Dark's seemingly goofy but astute and compassionate therapist, Gibson is all but unrecognizable in bald drag; Greg Cannom's F/X makeup serves both Gibson and Downey well).
If you rent the DVD and like it, watch it again with Keith Gordon's commentary track on; he has lots of intriguing and entertaining things to say about the making of the film, particularly about the cast and how he and his crew got those great surreal effects on a low budget..
I knew only the basic premise - that the film would be centered around a writer of pulp detective fiction who fantasizes about the lives of his characters as a way to escape his debilitating chronic skin disease.
The 'singing detective' is the main character in Dan Dark's first novel, and an imaginary alter-ego existing in a seedy film-noir world of pulp fiction, in which Dark has encoded all of the traumas of his emotionally disturbing life.
The rest - the pretty young nurse, the ambiguous wife, and the characters inhabiting Dark's fantasies and later his hallucinations are all well written and performed, but fail to compensate for the somewhat dull development of the central theme.Good films based on unfamiliar literary works always make me want to read the original material (Master and Commander, The World According to Garp, and Bladerunner are some examples).
"The Shhinging Detectivesh" said Rooprect out of the right corner of his mouth while out of the left corner was a limp cherry Twizzler hanging like the soggy laundry that he forgot to put in the dryer the night before.And that's where my story writing skills end.But never fear, the 2003 movie "The Singing Detective" has more than enough going for it to keep your attention for 109 minutes, if not days afterwards.
Just be ready for anything.The story begins in a kind of satirical film noir setting which we quickly learn is one of the nightmarish delusions that plague our hero (played by Robert Downey, Jr.) as he lies in a hospital bed, suffering, disfigured and terminally ticked off at the world.
If you end up seeing this movie, make sure to give it your full attention, absorb every detail, every line (EXCELLENT script, by the way, with chilling monologues that rival anything Salieri ever said in "Amadeus").I'm not sure how this film slipped through the cracks and received such a low rating on IMDb (5.7), but it's always great to stumble on an obscure gem like this.
in conclusion, if dark comedies and some really good acting (Robert Downey Jr. never lets me down with his amazing performances and this movie, explains why he is so damn good), and pure creativity is your cup of tea then, i strongly suggest The Singing Detective..
The Singing Detective (2003)Plot In A Paragraph: From his hospital bed, Dan Dark (Robert Downey Jr) a writer suffering from a skin disease (he calls himself a "human pizza) hallucinates musical numbers and paranoid plots.I can't talk about this movie, without talking about the casting of Robert Downey Jr. Long before Downey Jr cleaned up his act and landed the Ironman gig, there was a time when he was damaged goods and yesterday's headlines.
Detective story writer Dan Dark (Robert Downey Jr.) is hospitalized suffering full body lesions.
This is a movie you just have to try to figure out for yourself.Robert Downey, Jr. plays the main character, Dan Dark.
Story is about Dan Dark (Robert Downey Jr) who is in the hospital suffering from a hideous skin disease that covers his entire body.
Dan is a pulp fiction writer and while his pain ridden body lies in a hospital bed his hallucinations usually end up in song and dance routines or of himself as a Humphrey Bogart-like character.*****SPOILER ALERT***** Dan is also paranoid that his wife Nicola (Robin Wright Penn) is cheating and plotting something against him but he also fantasizes about two hit men (Adrien Brody & Jon Polito) that are trying to kill him.
Dan is sarcastic and downright insulting to everyone around him and it seems to stem from his memories of his mother Betty (Carla Gugino) so part of his therapy is to talk to the hospital psychiatrist Dr. Gibbon (Mel Gibson) who attempts to get at the core of his problems which may mean that his skin condition might be psychosomatic.This film is directed by Keith Gordon (Waking the Dead) who along with producer Mel Gibson have assembled a good solid cast that helps the viewer get through the films duration because the script makes it's point early then meanders on for another hour.
The film plays out like a Technicolour fever dream as reality meets fiction meets fantasy through the eyes of Robert Downey Jr's Dan Dark, a long-suffering author with an eye-watering painful looking skin condition.Downey is on top form, and the gradual erosion of the boundaries between fantasy and reality is extremely effective as characters from the page walk into Dark's real world and vice versa.His illness represents the decay apparent in his life since his difficult childhood, and all the clever metaphors therein are exploited beyond the obvious.Downey is, as always, fantastic- the scenes with Mel Gibson a delight, and Robin Wright Penn exudes a vulnerable warmth in her role as his long suffering wife.
Adrien Brody's presence is superfluous; still when he is on screen he's pretty darn good.It's a film that's not as clever as it thinks it is, though- all that smart symbolism is explored beyond the plot of the story until it becomes an exercise in showing you how to be clever on film, though failing because it's so obvious.Great performances, and all in all a wonderfully bold- yet fragile staging- of an a descent into illness and redemption, but flawed in it's brash attempt to overwhelm the audience with clever twists and turns and techniques which ultimately give the impression it's trying far too hard to be subversive..
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.
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.
A man ( played by a terrific Robert Downey Jr ) Dan Dark is hospitalized with a debilitating skin-disease!
THE SINGING DETECTIVE (3 outta 5 stars) Excellent main performance by Robert Downey Jr. as a writer of detective stories who is stricken with a horrible skin disease which makes his every movement extremely painful.
Keith Gordon's spectacular remake of Dennis Potter's acclaimed mini-series "The Singing Detective" is like three movies for the price of one: an audacious rock and roll musical reminiscent of French new wave classics like Godard's "A Woman is a Woman" and Demy's "Umbrellas of Cherbourg"; a witty film noir pastiche that both honors the traditions of its genre and takes them in new directions; and (and most potently) a scathing character study of a troubled writer who hates women and himself in seemingly equal measure.
The movie's tone varies wildly, from goofy humor to haunting tragedy, but Gordon orchestrates the shifts with the same supreme sense of craft that he exhibited in earlier gems like "Waking the Dead" and "Mother Night."  He's helped in no small part by his actors, all of whom are brilliant; Robert Downey Jr. gives the performance of his career in the film's complex leading role, and the other performers support him with wit and style (especially entertaining are Mel Gibson's uncharacteristically nerdy psychiatrist and the always great Katie Holmes as a nurse who shares the film's funniest scene (and sexiest musical number) with Downey.
Novelist Dan Dark is suffering from severe psoriasis, when he finds reality blending into fiction as he switches between hospital and his alter-ego, the 1950s Singing Detective.A combination of hospital drama, noir thriller, and dislocated musical that is entirely postmodern, the Singing Detective was adapted by screenwriter Dennis Potter from his groundbreaking 1986 TV series of the same name.
This film has taken most of the best scenes in the series, sexed it up (Downey Junior, Jeremy Northam as the oily Binney and Carla Gugino as Dan Dark's mother all smoulder in their roles), simplified the plot and created something new.
This film is about a man with a debilitating skin disease killing his time by imagining himself to be involved in crime, murder and seduction.I already thought "The Singing Detective" was very boring after watching fifteen minutes of it.
Singing Detective, The (2003) Robert Downey Jr., Robin Wright Penn, Mel Gibson, Jeremy Northam, Katie Holmes, Adrien Brody, Jon Polito, Carla Gugino, Saul Rubinek, Alfre Woodard, D: Keith Gordon.
And the third suggestion to all desperate-to-please Directors out there, like Keith Gordon, casting Mel Gibson in an against-type role in an independent film will not raise the quality of your movie!
It's about a mystery novelist named Dan Dark (a perfectly cast Robert Downey, Jr.), who has a hideous skin disease that makes him look sort of like a character from "Cabin Fever".
In that world, it's the 50's and he's a smooth lounge singer/detective working on the case of a murdered dame (Robin Wright-Penn).Usually when he's slipping from the real world into his imaginary world, it's accompanied by a neat musical number (the first one, set to Danny & The Juniors' 50's classic "At The Hop" is an absolute blast).So I'm sure that sounds like a lot of fun (it did to me), but I was really let down by this movie.The main problem is just that it isn't any fun most of the time.
I loved the musical numbers and a lot of Dark's imaginary film-noir fantasy world, but those scenes are too few and WAY too far between.In the last half, there are some interesting and very serious insights into Dan Dark's mind, due to some flashbacks to his turbulent childhood, but by that point it was hard to get me to care much.There's a great cast; in addition to Downey Jr. and Wright Penn, there's also Katie Holmes, Alfre Woodard, Carla Gugino, Jeremy Northam and even Mel Gibson as a balding psychiatrist.
He was certainly an original, but he works his audiences hard with a cleverness that borders on self-satisfaction.Like Brimstone And Treacle, Blackeyes, and Lipstick On Your Collar, The Singing Detective is another hotchpotch of sex, music and misanthropy which may have shocked TV audiences in the 80s (`Ooh, she just said penis'!'), but will just leave the average cinema viewer unfulfilled and slightly baffled in 2003.This new version does have its plus points: Mel Gibson's shrink, some extremely painful-looking psoriasis make-up and the excellent goonery of Jon Polito and Adrien Brody.
Mel Gibson had the courage of producing it and acting in it, and Robert Downey Jr. had the guts of starring it, playing the dysfunctional, visionary, crazy writer Dan Dark (it was not the name in the series, but never mind).
I have to watch "The Pianist" again.Underrated actors like Carla Gugino and Jeremy Northam have also got key roles in the film; and Robin Wright Penn plays her contradictory character as good as always.
I figured - Robert Downey, Mel Gibson, and Adrien Brody - should make for a good detective story.
Katie Holmes was great as usual (for the time she was in the movie) but i think Pieces of April was a better film.
THE SINGING DETECTIVE (2003) **1/2 Robert Downey, Jr., Robin Wright Penn, Mel Gibson, Jeremy Northam, Katie Holmes, Adrien Brody, Jon Polito, Carla Gugino, Saul Rubinek, Alfre Woodard, Amy Aquino, David Dorman.
Downey gives a game performance in this big-screen version of the acclaimed tv mini-series concocted by author Dennis Potter about a troubled pulp fiction writer going through a traumatic breakdown involving a nasty case of psychological based psoriasis and the inner workings of his fevered creative wellspring of his mind in overdrive incorporating bursts into musical sequences (a nice '50s jukebox offering to boot) while his surroundings are crumbling around his psyche and his eponymous warbling gumshoe and alter ego adding some punchy moments in a fond valentine to film noir.
If it weren't for the original TV series I fancy that this version of Dennis Potter's 'The Singing Detective' would be regarded as an unusual and interesting film, maybe with something of a cult following.
It carries, with it, overlapping scenes from 3 eras  the 1930's film-noir fantasy (from a novel Robert Downey's Dan Dark wrote) with the 1980's contemporary times of the adult Dark's hospital stay, and with his 1950's childhood memories (young Dark had witnessed his mother's adultery.)  The audience is left to judge and associate the characters.
The Singing Detective (Spoiler)During the first five minutes of this surrealistic film noir, surprisingly steeped knee deep in reality, we watched principal character, Dan Dark/Robert Downey Jr, literally ravage against hospital staff members, hurling verbal obscenities and dishing out caustic abuse at random.
During Dark's journeys into his vivid hallucinations and his childhood, 50's song and dance routines spring to life as he works towards uncovering the root of his illness, aided by the unconventional methods of one Dr. Gibbon, uniquely portrayed by Downey's long time friend, Mel Gibson.While watching the revised film, which was also written by Potter himself, I couldn't help but think perhaps the original was a little lengthy.
Not only was Dark being chased by his own shadow and two thugs, but he also suffered from acute paranoia, believing his wife was after his money and it was hysterical at times watching him try to distinguish his demons from his angels.In addition to a wonderful performance by Mel Gibson, who shares some brilliant scenes with Downey, each supporting cast member is terrific and important to the story and it's merit.
A criticism would be that I would have enjoyed seeing Holmes character receive more screen time, but her role was certainly key to the story and provided levity and sexual fantasy to Dark's brooding mental state.The concept of the film is different and doesn't conform to rules or a formula often utilized by Hollywood studios, but it's refreshing and people felt uplifted when it concluded with Downey himself singing a soothing rendition of Gene Vincent's `In My Dreams' as the credits rolled across the screen.
Playing two characters in a film can be quite confusing for some actors but Robert Downey Jr takes to it like a duck to water.
Based on a well-regarded TV-series by British writer Dennis Potter, director Keith Gordon's "The Singing Detective" stars Robert Downey Jr. as Dan Dark.
But for the most part, all the film's wild excursions serve only to distract from its more interesting, central premise: Robert Downey Jr. disfigured, immobile and consumed by self-hate.Dennis Potter's 1986's TV-series, "The Singing Detective", had several hours to languidly tell its tale.
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.
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.