The Singing Detective is tuneless

The Singing Detective

Director: Keith Gordon

Cast: Robert Downey Jnr, Robin Wright Penn, Jeremy Northam, Katie Holmes, Carla Gugino, Adrien Brody, Mel Gibson, Alfre Woodard

Cert: 18.

For some curious reason Hollywood has taken the late Dennis Potter's great l980's TV drama series and turned it into a film. One wonders why!

There is nothing new for us in what becomes a fairly pointless reworking of the story of the man who lies in a hospital bed suffering from chronic psoriasis. It has always been a powerful story best suited to the small screen; there is no improvement in this translation to the big screen.

With one excellent exception none of the cast seem able to grasp the key to Potter's story; the exception is Downey. The much-troubled actor - a regular inmate of various prisons for misuse of various substances - must have plenty of photographs tucked away somewhere for whatever he gets up to Hollywood is ready with another chance. Not that he doesn't deserve it; he is one of the great actors, as he proves here.

The over-riding problem of this SD is that it all seems totally unnecessary, packed with an all-star cast that is unable to make sense of Potter's convoluted story. All of them are out of their depths while Gordon seems unable to draw it all together.

Star Rating: 2/5