Review of The Singing Detective (2003) by Kenneth L — 07 Jul 2014
On paper, this movie sounds amazing. It's a metaficitonal noir-tinged musical starring Robert Downey Jr. and Mel Gibson? Should be awesome, right? Unfortunately, it's not. The execution is just bad: there's no clear arc to the story or character development, the movie just look sort of cheap, the musical numbers seem to happen more or less at random (and aren't original songs, but lip-synced versions of kitschy 40s and 50s pop songs), and nothing about it really makes much sense.
Robert Downey Jr. is entertaining just by default, and Gibson gives a surprisingly restrained performance given that he's made up to look like a crazy person, but that's about it. It's adapted from a 6-hour TV miniseries, which I've never seen, and which I suspect probably works better.
In this abbreviated form, though, the movie feels slapdash and incomplete. It's an interesting premise that never seems to gel into an actual good movie. Alas.
This review of The Singing Detective (2003) was written by Kenneth L on 07 Jul 2014.
The Singing Detective has generally received mixed reviews.
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