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Features: DVD
Editor's Note
Director Keith Gordon (MOTHER NIGHT, WAKING THE DEAD) makes another brave adaptation with THE SINGING DETECTIVE. Based on Dennis Potter's stunningly brilliant 1986 BBC mini-series of the same name, Gordon's version finds the film's troubled hero transplanted to 1950s America, not post-WWII London. Dan Dark (Robert Downey Jr.) is a pulp novelist in the thralls of a crippling skin disease that has rendered him delusional and immobile. Bitter, angry, and at the end of his rope, Dan manages to offend everyone he encounters. As he lies in bed, scenes from his novel swim into his mind, blurring with experiences from his own childhood. In the present, he remains paranoid that his ex-wife Nicola (Robin Wright Penn) is out to steal a script he wrote. Adding to his disgust are forced visits with an uptight psychotherapist, Dr. Gibbon (Mel Gibson), who is determined to make a breakthrough with his hateful patient. Along the way, Dan envisions several musical sequences, which appear out of nowhere and add glorious confusion to his fevered state. Gordon, working from a script that Potter himself wrote before his death, delivers an imaginary, vibrant film that is aided greatly by Robert Downey Jr.'s ferocious performance.
| Features | Keep Case | | Full Frame - 1.33 | | Widescreen - 1.85 | | Audio:
| Dolby Digital - English |
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| Entertainment Reviews
 | The Singing Detective - DVD Review By: Chris Barsanti - filmcritic.com DVD Reviews Published on: 9/12/2008 3:28 PM | |
“I’m a prisoner inside my own skin.” So says Dan Dark (Robert Downey Jr.), hack novelist and lifelong sufferer of psoriatic arthropathy, a horrific disease that has left him with barely functioning limbs and an appalling welter of blisters and rashes over every inch of his body. Dark spews rage at everyone who comes near him, from his fed-up wife (Robin Wright Penn) to the gaggle of aloof doctors who occasionally drop by to put him on a different drug. To get away from the misery of his day-to-day existence, Dark retreats into a 1950s film noir fantasy world straight from one of his books, where he’s a handsome band singer who moonlights as a gumshoe....read the full review |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
|  | Studio: LEGEND FILMS, INC. |
| Release Date: 9/23/2008 |
| Running Time: 108 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2003 | | Catalog ID: 00461 | | UPC: 00844503001061 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Video: Color |
| Cast & Crew
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| | Professional Reviews | USA Today
"...Downey fans may enjoy it because DETECTIVE gives the actor one of his best showcase roles since CHAPLIN..." 10/24/2003 p.5EEntertainment Weekly
"...Robert Downey Jr. is great in a role no one less magnetically reckless would dare approach..." 10/31/2003 p.55 Los Angeles Times
"...[With] Robert Downey Jr. in a boldly theatrical portrayal that represents a personal career high watermark..." 10/24/2003 p.C12 Chicago Sun-Times
"It proposes to be a subjective view of suffering, and the ways this character tries to cope with it. Understand that, and the pieces fall into place." 11/14/2003 p.32 Uncut
"It's an intriguing, brisk effort..." 12/01/2003 p.154 |
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