Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

The Singing Detective Blu-ray Movie Review

All singing! All dancing! All psoriatic!

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 14, 2015

The original 1986 British television miniseries version of The Singing Detective spent six episodes and close to seven hours detailing the travails of a crime novelist whose horrible psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis has more or less completely debilitated him from a physical standpoint, and come close to doing the same from a mental and/or psychological standpoint. Dennis Potter’s teleplay was deliberately hallucinatory, segueing between reality and fantasy at the veritable drop of a hat, often leaving the viewer at least somewhat perplexed as to what exactly was going on. It should probably come as no great surprise, then, that the heavily redacted 2003 film adaptation, an entry which comes in at well under two hours, leaves more than a bit of even cursory explanations by the wayside, thrusting the viewer into a melange of fantasy and horrifying medical treatments that undoubtedly have a visceral impact but which just as undoubtedly rarely make much “sense” in the traditional way. Bolstered by a really fearless performance by Robert Downey, Jr., this particular Singing Detective lacks the overall sweep and peculiar majesty of the miniseries version, but it’s fitfully quite fascinating. Fans of Potter’s earlier quasi-musical miniseries Pennies from Heaven (which was itself adapted into a 1981 film starring Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters) may be more at home than unacclimated viewers with The Singing Detective’s sometimes odd appropriation of patently bizarre source tunes. As with The Singing Detective, the music doesn’t always inform the narrative in a traditional way, seeming to lapse over into stream of consciousness production numbers that are admittedly amazing to see in their own extremely weird ways, but which at times tend to interrupt the narrative flow rather than supporting it.

A frankly bewildering array of content spills forth in the opening few minutes of The Singing Detective which is virtually guaranteed to keep most audience members feeling at least a little off kilter. Two mysterious guys (Adrien Brody and Jon Polito) are evidently tailing another guy in what looks like a typical mid-century noir setting. The two later break in on the guy and a girl he’s picked up at a nightclub while they’re engaged in their one night stand and proceed to drag the woman (Robin Wright Penn in one of several roles she plays in the film) into the bathroom and drown her in a bathtub. That cartwheeling scenario is suddenly interrupted by the gruesome sight of Dan Dark (Robert Downey, Jr.), a writer who has been confined to a hospital due to his truly horrifying covering of body lesions and crippling arthritis (the makeup effects in the film are absolutely astounding and not for the squeamish or faint of heart).

While nothing in Dennis Potter’s discursive screenplay is ever overtly explained in any authoritative way, it soon becomes clear that the first scene is not just the product of Dark’s fevered imagination, but also some version of a book entitled The Singing Detective which he wrote. The film will continue to ply the thin tissue between Dark’s evanescent reality and increasingly solid feeling fantasy world, with characters segueing between these two universes with little thought of whether or not they “rationally” belong there.

In the supposed “real” world, Dark is surrounded by unctuous and at times unhelpful medical staff personnel (played by a variety of fantastic character actors like Alfre Woodard, Saul Rubinek and especially Amy Aquino), some of whom do not take kindly to Dark’s out of control temper. A bit more understanding is young Nurse Mills (an adorable Katie Holmes), a sweet girl whose application of salve to Dark’s hideously deformed skin leads to unwelcome arousal and (of course) a musical fantasy sequence.

Ultimately a third story element enters the fray when Dark’s fractious childhood is explored, including his somewhat troubling relationship with his mother (Carla Gugino). Meanwhile, the murder of the woman in red plays out, albeit within Dark’s self-described ethos of “all clues and no solutions.” Dark’s contemporary adult world is also full of considerable turmoil, including a dysfunctional relationship with his ex- wife (Wright Penn in another role). The veil between these elements becomes increasingly thin as the film progresses, ultimately being shorn of any separating quality entirely as the story moves into its odd endgame.

All of this weirdness is only increased by the film’s frequent lapsing into patently bizarre production numbers or even little sung moments like Brody’s thug singing along with the inimitable Patti Page on her big hit “How Much is that Doggie in the Window?” The musical elements are almost willfully haphazard at times, as if Busby Berkeley had invaded this film, albeit while spectacularly high on some hallucinogen.

The Singing Detective never really works in any meaningful way, and yet it’s a remarkable film on certain levels, not the least of which is chances are you’ve never seen anything remotely like it. The performances are all superb, including a bald plated Mel Gibson as a psychiatrist who attempts to peek beneath the prickly persona of Dark. The film version is probably too telescoped to ever fully explore its already convoluted themes (no pun intended), but the high caliber of the acting makes it a memorable experience nonetheless. About 20 years before this film version of The Singing Detective came out, an iconic Talking Heads concert film offered the wonderful title of Stop Making Sense. Some wags may aver that Dennis Potter decided you don’t need to stop making sense if you never start making sense to begin with.

The Singing Detective Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Singing Detective is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. There's something a little odd going on with the transfer that isn't always that apparent with the film in motion, but which becomes a bit more evident when the frame is frozen or when screenshots are taken. A somewhat heavy grain field overpowers the presentation at times, but looks at least decently organic, but what seems "off" is the repeated tendency of the image to show parallel vertical lines in close proximity running through the entire frame, which I frankly can't authoritatively determine is linked to the grain resolution or not. It's also unclear whether or not this is source related or some odd byproduct of a miscalibrated scanner, compression and/or authoring. It's virtually unobservable in the many darker moments of the film, but in certain sequences, notably the bus ride with young Dark and his mom, it's more than noticeable (see screenshot 10 and make sure to view in full resolution). This tendency gives a strange "textured" look to the presentation which detracts from what is otherwise above average in terms of saturation, overall color space and clarity. (This anomaly is very similar though not as pronounced as the odd situation I mentioned in my One From the Heart Blu-ray review several years ago.) The good news is that this anomaly is not overly problematic with the film in motion, at least most of the time. Director Keith Gordon and cinematographer Tom Richmond play with various stocks and approaches like blown out contrast (see screenshot 3) which can tend to minimize detail and fine detail at times. Some of the flashback sequences are color graded slightly toward the sepia side of things, but the image remains sharp and well defined during these moments. Close-ups of Downey's unbelievable makeup do not lack for fine detail, which some viewers may feel is not necessarily a good thing.

The Singing Detective Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Singing Detective features a nice sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track which firmly supports the many source cues utilized throughout the film, as well as dialogue scenes. A lot of the musical material is mid-century in origination and belies its era's recording technologies, with a somewhat narrow and boxy sound at times. Otherwise, fidelity is top notch and there are no problems of any kind to report.

The Singing Detective Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplements of any kind on this Blu-ray disc.

The Singing Detective Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's been quite a bit of critical exegesis through the years as to what Dennis Potter "really" meant with the original television version of The Singing Detective (some of the theories are quite inventive, and I recommend those with an interest to do a bit of internet sleuthing, as there are several fascinating articles available online). This film version may have some incredibly deep subtext (an at least questionable thesis), but whatever "meaning" it attains is transitory at best. This version is best appreciated as a fascinating hodgepodge of ideas which offers fantastic performance opportunities for a rather eclectic cast. The miniseries has its own issues, but remains better developed and probably ultimately more effective simply by dint of the fact that it had a lot more time on its veritable hands to deal with various plot points. Having seen way too many "cookie cutter" films for my own personal comfort level, I have been more willing to grant this version a little slack since I first saw it decades ago, simply because it's so completely and utterly original. There are some issues with the video here that are a bit strange, but with caveats noted, The Singing Detective comes Recommended.