Robert Downey jr. plays Danny Dark, a writer of pulp fiction novel called "The Singing Detective." He is hospitalized with a skin disorder which apparently is psychological. His shrink is played by Mel Gibson, in an unorthodox role for him. Dark's novel is based on events in his childhood, making characters from people he had met. Danny is delusional and imagines things in the present, confounding the people in real life with the characters in his book. The dialogue in the movie is excellent. If you enjoyed the dark humor of the Joker in the Dark Knight, you will enjoy the ramblings of Downey early on. The real problem with the movie is that you realize that all the action in the film is delusional. As far as real action and plot, the film moves along as a one man play. Bad language, simulated sex, no nudity.

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. Dark's suffering from a painful skin condition which requires him to be hospitalised for long periods."Detective" can be divided into three overlapping sections. In its finest section, we watch as Dan's condition exerts a severe toll on his body and mind. Covered in ghoulish lesions, scales and wounds, Dan is understandably perpetually embarrassed and bitter. These emotions slowly blossom into self-hate, and an unbridled rage which Dan hurls at anyone who approaches his hospital bed. Robert Downey Jr. captures Dark's torment expertly."The Singing Detective's" other sections are less successful. As Dan's condition has cut him off from the outside world, Dan's become an author. Sublimating his desires, the bedridden writer is also prone to elaborate flights of fancy, Dan imagining vaudeville routines, musical numbers and film-noir inspired detective plots, most of which feature Dan himself as a handsome, suave and talented man. These "fantasy sequences" bleed into the film's "reality sequences" which themselves bleed into the film's third segment, which attempts to delve into Dan's childhood. All three segments contain characters, doubles, doppelgängers, situations and motifs which overlap from one segment to the next. 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. What emerged was a weird and partially autobiographical tale (Potter also suffered from a skin condition), lent gravity by its extended running time. Potter's neurotic writer was trapped in his own little Freudian nightmare, wrestles with an Oedipal complex and metaphorically "kills himself" (thus "freeing" himself from various psychological scars). But those zany happenings occurred over many hours. The TV format gave Potter's tale room to breath, unfurl and take on tragic dimensions. Keith Gordon, in contrast, tries to cram all this material into a two hour running time. The result is something that is frenetic and thin. It also doesn't help that "The Singing Detective's" brand of post-modernism, relatively new in the 1980s, is now commonplace and so tedious. Today, all you need is Downey in a bed. Nothing else.6.5/10 – Worth one viewing.

They went for a 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest' with more style, and ended up with 'Battlefield Earth', minus the great acting. I haven't seen the original series, so I can't compare the two, but the series lasted pretty long, so it couldn't have been bad.The acting isn't atrocious, but Robert Downey, Jr. is too tough to look at through the beginning. He mumbles, and I can't understand what he is saying. 'Speak up!' I once found myself yelling at my television. Mel Gibson is just pointless here. His role has no substance, and as the doctor he accomplishes nothing. In fact, the only good performance was from Katie Holmes, who was quite honestly a sight for sore eyes after so many pointless scenes.That's the main problem here; The Singing Detective had no clear point. There's a lot of smaller stories weaved in, but they don't seem relevant. Bob Downer is stuck in that hospital, looking around, occasionally imagining that he is in some kind of dance club (?). There's something about his wife as well, and finally, Adrien Brody and Jon Polito play a bumbling duo that can't quite seem to catch a man strapped to a bed.This might have had a point, somewhere. Until we find out what that was, save your money.

Whatever merits Dennis Potter's drama had on TV they are completely obliterated in this large-screen Hollywood version. Whereas Potter's "Pennies from Heaven" transferred magnificently to the cinema, (for starters it had a plot, a sense of both time and place and some stunning musical numbers), this is both inconsequential and largely incomprehensible. (If I hadn't seen the television series I'm sure I would never have known what was going on). Not that working out what's happening is really worth the effort; it's fundamentally mediocre and since Potter himself did the adaptation we know where the blame lies. A decent cast, including a heavily disguised Mel Gibson, do their best with the material but no-one seems to be able to work up any enthusiasm. One to avoid.