The Singing Detective

While Robert Downey Jr. is incredible in the role of Dan Dark, pulp author and debilitating psoriasis sufferer, this mixture of fantasy and psychodrama is uneven. Director Keith Gordon handles the "real" side of the film with major competence, getting all the right notes out of Downey buried underneath skin- disease makeup. The same can’t be said for the fantasy sequences where Downey’s Dark imagines himself in his own novel, lip-synching ’50s tunes and dodging bullets. The scope and look of the fantasy angle seem too much for Gordon to handle. Still, much of the film is worth seeing due to Downey and a heavily disguised Mel Gibson as Dark’s balding psychiatrist. The film might be a failure on some levels, but Downey’s work is incredible. Also stars Katie Holmes, Robin Wright-Penn and Adrian Brody.