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Critic Reviews

Catch it to see a major performance by a magnetic actor, but go in with patience and with the realization that the film is something of an interesting failure.

-Joe BaltakeFull Review

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

-Richard RoeperFull Review

When I saw it at Sundance, my attention was divided because I was trying to process the meaning of the jagged structure. Seeing it again a week ago, knowing what to expect, I found it a more moving experience.

-Roger EbertFull Review

The Singing Detective has to settle for a hung jury.

-Terry LawsonFull Review

It stands completely on Downey's tragi-comic performance, although the rest of the cast -- particularly Penn and Gibson -- do good work as well.

-Tom Long

Although the miniseries spent time developing the strands of the interwoven stories, the movie flits from idea to idea and plays like a chaotic, failed experiment.

-Bill Muller

If the movie doesn't really work, it's because it's a hard piece to bring off, an extremely high mark to hit. Still, enough magic is left, especially in Downey's performance, to shock and beguile us.

-Michael WilmingtonFull Review

Fans of the classic Dennis Potter BBC miniseries: Stay far, far away from this pale, Americanized imitation.

-Charles TaylorFull Review

Apart from Downey's convincing contribution, the movie feels too contrived, stagy and inorganic to draw any pleasure.

-Desson Thomson

It's the kind of movie that was made in the spirit of 'Why not?' and will leave most viewers simply asking, 'Why?'

-Ann Hornaday

While the general contours of Potter's original story are intact, they've lost all their transitional graces.

-Geoff PevereFull Review

It just doesn't work; not as an adaptation of the acclaimed 1980s British television series, nor as a stand-alone movie.

-Moira MacDonaldFull Review

The movie makes its point and still has another hour to go.

-Mick LaSalleFull Review

Everything works in the beginning, in fact, but the movie spins out of control toward the end.

-Eric HarrisonFull Review

Without the breathing spaces allowed by the long-form, gone are the slow and developing rhythms of the original, its depth of characterization, and its refusal to sentimentalize a really vicious protagonist.

-Rick GroenFull Review

The new Singing Detective mirrors Potter's growth as well as his originality, and moving from television to silver screen feels like a rewarding round trip.

-Michael BoothFull Review

True, Gordon is working from Potter's own adapted script, but it's hard to shake the sense that the writer may simply have been trolling for a Hollywood paycheck.

-Ty BurrFull Review

Although the screenplay is based on one by the late Potter, it feels like 100 pounds of material crammed into a small Ziploc bag.

-Carrie Rickey

The Singing Detective gives you the feeling that someone took a handful of disparate films, chucked them into a blender and poured the results onto the screen.

-Chris VognarFull Review

Any sober viewers trying to follow this mishmash mystery are going to wish they'd brought along a cache of aspirin.

-Jeff StricklerFull Review

Virtuoso work by Robert Downey Jr. and an unrecognizable Mel Gibson (who also produced) can't keep The Singing Detective from degenerating into sheer noise.

-Bob CampbellFull Review

The casting misfires.

-Jami BernardFull Review

It is worth catching The Singing Detective to see the brilliant Robert Downey Jr. in another extraordinary performance.

-Jonathan Foreman

The movie lurches when it should glide, shouts when it should whisper and mumbles when it should sing.

-A.O. ScottFull Review

For all the amazing lengths Downey and Gibson go to, the two actors seem to exist in a vacuum, for this stiff film is virtually devoid of a sense of texture, flow or wit.

-Kevin ThomasFull Review

Robert Downey Jr. is great in a role no one less magnetically reckless would dare approach.

-Lisa SchwarzbaumFull Review

A fine example of entertainment -- an eclectic mix of drama, film noir, and comedy, with plenty of fantasy musical numbers thrown in for good measure.

-James BerardinelliFull Review

The problems come in the shadow world, where everything's a jumble, where Dark's compositional strategy ('all clues and no solutions') eventually becomes wearing, and Gordon's direction can't hold it all together.

-Leslie CamhiFull Review

This is a special film in need of TLC in its marketing.

-Kirk Honeycutt


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