The Singing Detective

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The Singing Detective

R,

2003,

1h 49m,

Drama/

Musical

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Watchlist

41%

101 Reviews

Tomatometer

40%

5,000+ Ratings

Popcornmeter

41%

Tomatometer

101 Reviews

40%

Popcornmeter

5,000+ Ratings

Hospitalized for a severe skin disease, a bitter writer (Robert Downey Jr.) imagines he is the gumshoe from his novel.

Critics Consensus

Delightful performance from Robert Downey Jr. can't save The Singing Detective's transition from TV to the big screen.

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Jeremiah Kipp

Slant Magazine

Jan 17, 2004

1.5/4

Potter's gaze into the man's dark sexual and familial secrets isn't about one man's oppression, but about his self-imposed melodrama.

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Marjorie Baumgarten

Austin Chronicle

Dec 7, 2003

2/5

Perpetually feels as if it were a good idea that was never fully thought through.

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Richard Roeper

Ebert & Roeper

Nov 17, 2003

... it is just a little bit too much of a disjointed mess.

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Kaleem Aftab

The List

Apr 17, 2019

3/5

This film seems confused to the point that it is impossible to come to grips with the intriguing study of one man's fetid psyche which the film is supposed to essay.

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Cole Smithey

ColeSmithey.com

May 9, 2009

C

The film's colorful song-and-dance set pieces rely on lip-synced '50s songs that are the weakest link in a bumbling but gregarious movie.

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Ethan Alter

NYC Film Critic

Mar 5, 2005

2/5

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Harry S

Apr 25, 2018

Tiresome and uninvolving adaptation by Dennis Potter of his original 1986 TV series. A twitchy and often inaudible Downey Jr lies in a hospital bed, deliriously imagining ghosts from his past as noir characters in a murder mystery. Only when he starts psychiatric sessions with Mel Gibson in a bald skullcap does his psoriasis start to heal and the pieces fall into place. But you'll have long since ceased caring. A vanity project par excellence.

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Theodore S

Aug 25, 2017

While I appreciated the juggling of several different timelines, and didn't even mind the musical interludes, I was mostly dismayed and taken out of this by the fact that the have Robert Downey Jr. (who can sing) lip syncing to the various songs, which just took me out of things a bit too much. Rental? Maybe?

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Keith Gordon

Director

Robert Downey Jr.

Dan Dark

Robin Wright

Nicola

Mel Gibson

Dr. Gibbon

Jeremy Northam

Mark Binney

Katie Holmes

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Synopsis

Hospitalized for a severe skin disease, a bitter writer (Robert Downey Jr.) imagines he is the gumshoe from his novel.

Director: Keith Gordon
Producer: Mel Gibson, Steven Haft, Bruce Davey
Distributor: Airborne Productions Inc., Paramount Pictures
Production Co: Haft Entertainment, E1 Entertainment, Icon Entertainment International
Rating: R
Genre: Drama, Musical
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Nov 7, 2003, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 21, 2010
Box Office (Gross USA): $336.5K
Runtime: 1h 49m
Sound Mix: Surround, Dolby SR

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