I was 24 when the BBC screened Dennis Potter's 6-part series The Singing Detective starring Michael Gambon as a hospitalised psoriasis sufferer. I watched it avidly, of course, because of the extensive outcry against it: notoriety was ever good for the box office. And I confess that I was too young and inexperienced to properly comprehend its strange and beguiling mix of real life, fantasy, fever dreams, flashback, pastiche mimed musical numbers, and the meaning and purpose of the way they were interwoven.17 years later, Hollywood films a Potter-scripted revision of the piece, substantially shorter, transplanted to the USA, and brought forward in time some years. I can't really compare them, because my recollections of the TV piece are sketchy.So I am commenting solely on this movie. It retains the mix of the original, but it is substantially easier to come to terms with what is being done: what is fever, what is imagination, what is recollection, and why each section is presented in that way. Robert Downey Jr as the protagonist (here renamed Dan Dark from the Philip Marlow of the original, each name having its own significance) as hugely impressive, but everyone shines.And the makeup....

First off, a feeling that I can't hold; (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind – 2002) sure surpasses this one. Because while having nearly the same idea, (Confessions..) connected the psychically ill man (who makes up an imaginary world and lives it, to forget about his main complex) with bigger case; which was the informational deception during the 1960s and the 1970s. True that (The Singing Detective) managed perfectly to show the case of its physically/psychically ill lead and his world, however without further dimensions or deeper issues unless the matter of the artist who showcases himself, and all of his life, through his art; whether consciously or unconsciously, with some kind of a tribute to the culture of the 1940s (movies, novels, songs..).It's interesting, with a personage for a movie that got nothing to do with the flicks of the major studies. So there had to be Mad Mel to handle the job and produce the whole thing. But the movie overall looks a bit poor. For instance the climactic battle wasn't dazzling as I though it would be. The using of the old songs wasn't done artistically well; some of them were annoying, having a bad irony with the modern scenes (like the moment of Downey. Jr getting stand up by the help of his doctor). And the movie's numbers were anything but distinct; I wanted the major studies to be vexed, but no such luck!(Robert Downey. Jr) was the movie's center stage. He got a lot inside of him. Nevertheless, something around him didn't let him release all what he could have had for such a character, and I'm not talking about the script. Mel as doctor Gibbon (!!) was a joke more than a character, I bet he did it just to prove how he hates to be Mr. Hollywood action hero only. There are some brilliant moments, especially when the script is exploring the lead's past as a manuscript of a noir movie. Sorrowfully (The Singing Detective) couldn't be as highly lovely or impressive as its premise. It got many great points, but not in one great movie. Still a good one though. But not for all.

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.

This film is about a man with a debilitating skin disease killing his time by imagining himself to be involved in crime, murder and seduction.I already thought "The Singing Detective" was very boring after watching fifteen minutes of it. And it did not get better throughout the film.First of all, the plot is incoherent and fragmented. The present, childhood memories and Dan's imagination are all independent of each other with no connections at all. I felt I was watching a bunch of jumbled up scenes.Secondly, how can this be classified as a musical? There are only three short scenes where the actors lip synch the songs. The songs don't even tell the plot, they are just there as background music. "Dreamgirls", "Hairspray" and "Chicago" are musicals, but this is certainly not.Thirdly, I feel cheated by the cover of the disc. It bills Katie Holmes and Adrien Brody , but they have such minor and dispensable parts. Oh wait, actually the whole film is dispensable. I thought the US$1.1 I spent on buying this film was completely wasted. Watching this film is pure torture.