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The Singing Detective (2003)
Based on the BBC series of the same name, The Singing Detective tells the story of Dan Dark (Robert Downey Jr.), a detective fiction writer who is bed-ridden due to crippling psoriasis. While trapped by his bitterness and rage he begins to hallucinate, as scenes from his novel and his early childhood force their way onto his reality until he is unable to distinguish fact from fiction.
While the title may suggest a cheery, good old-fashioned murder mystery, this is anything but. Dark treats everyone he encounters with rage and resentment, from the doctors and nurses in the hospital, to his psycho-therapist Dr. Gibbon (Mel Gibson), to his wife (Robin Wright Penn) who still loves him despite the abuse he hurls at her. But it’s not all doom and gloom; among Dark’s hallucinations are musical sequences, and scenes from his novel realised as a 1950s-style film noir, with the various characters played by the people in his life.
Most of what we see is in Dark’s mind, so Downey Jr.’s performance anchors the film amid the often incomprehensible action; it is fortunate therefore that Downey Jr. is the only thing that keeps this film going. Gibson has fun with his slightly kooky psycho-therapist, but there is no real plot that we are meant to follow, and the film never looks quite as cool as it wants to be. This confusing mix of musical, film noir, hospital character drama and early-life-flashbacks is an odd film that proves only to be a vehicle for Downey Jr.’s talent.
Layer Cake (2004)
After taking a back seat as producer for Lock Stock... and Snatch, Matthew Vaughn made his directing debut with this 2004 offering, taking the reins from regular collaborator Guy Ritchie for the first time and flying solo. The result is a very different film than we might have seen had ex-Mr. Madonna been in the director’s chair.
For a start, the direction is less showy. While you are aware of Vaughn’s camera working its magic, there are none of the narrative flourishes that accompany Ritchie’s jaunty British gangster films; this is cool, efficient filmmaking, and for this story it is necessary.
A pre-Bond Daniel Craig plays a smart, successful drugs dealer, or businessman as he would prefer. Just before he is about to retire, he is given two more jobs by someone further up the ladder, and this lands him in a whole lot of trouble. There is some fun to be had by watching this after Craig’s Bond exploits, given that his character (whose name we never learn) is squeamish about guns. As his character plays around with a gun, you can see the beginnings of Bond in his eyes. In this setting, however, Craig is in his element, holding your attention amid the host of excellent supporting players who sometimes bring violence, sometimes light relief. But this is no Ritchie comedy; this is more realistic, and therefore more dangerous. Welcome to the Layer Cake.
Charlie Bartlett (2007)
This is another example of the power of marketing. As was the case with Hancock, Charlie Bartlett is a very different film in the trailer than it is in reality; and yet you get the impression that scriptwriter Gustin Nash’s film debut wishes it was more like the film in the trailer.
Rather than be a fish-out-of-water high-school comedy, the film struggles to find its tone. It drifts between ‘rich kid trying to make it at a state school’, to a social commentary on the over-medication of today’s teenagers for a whole barrage of psychological problems that they probably wouldn’t have if someone just listened to them, with a bit of attempted suicide and paternal neglect thrown in along the way.
It also starts on a rather shaky premise, when the titular schoolboy (Anton Yelchin) is expelled from his public school for starting a small business in fake driving licences. The only trouble is you never believe that Bartlett is quite the troublemaker he’s made out to be. Yelchin plays him as genteel, affable and intelligent, not a rebel who frequently gets expelled. The brightest light in the film is Kat Dennings as the daughter of the principal (a tamed Robert Downey Jr.) who seems the most realistic person at West Summit High.
There are a few amusing moments but there is a subplot concerning Downey Jr.’s borderline alcoholic principal that is never really developed. You sense the film still has some important things to say about the state of America’s high schools and its students, but you just wish it had the guts to be that kind of film.
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