The Singing Detective

In what should be hailed as a notable return to form for him after a troubling few years, Robert Downey Jr delivers an immaculate performance in this enjoyable, if fractured, affair. Downey Jr plays Dan Dark, a pulp novelist who is suffering from an awful skin complaint which has left him in the hospital. As he recovers slowly from the ailment and deals with his increasing anger, he juggles around incidents from his novel, The Singing Detective along with some from his very troubled childhood. Mel Gibson turns up as his shrink, trying to coax out the details of what is fuelling Dark's vicious antagonism.

The subtle scope and tension of the series may have been lost somewhat by the big screen adaptation, and The Singing Detective occasionally crashes into a surreal nightmare, but this ambitious efforts still has quite a few merits. The intricacies of the series characterisation ring a little hollow, but Downey's Jr's performance is full of intelligence and a deep charisma, riffing off Gibson to good effect in the film's best scenes. The Singing Detective lacks cohesive, especially in its second half, but this is far from a wasted exercise.