More miniseries from Netflix! Yes, this is how my queue reaches such proportions - good recommendations, and added movies which are really multi-disc seasons of things instead. Anyway, this week: The Singing Detective.
Plot: The miniseries is a blend of fiction, flashback and present day, seen through the mind of detective writer Philip Marlow (Michael Gambon). Marlow is hospitalized with psoriatic arthropathy, which affects his skin and joints, making movement so painful that he is confined to a hospital bed. In order to keep his sanity, Marlow writes inside his mind, blurring one of his early works with childhood memories. The novel he has written himself into as the lead is "The Singing Detective," a surreal fantasy of spies and criminals, complete with musical score. Marlow's mental wanderings help him survive his time in hospital, and eventually move towards recovery.
This is an interesting one. Honestly, after the first disc, I wasn't sure how they would end it. It was such a dark beginning. Because he's dealing with a skin disorder, not just the joint pain, etc, he is very depressed and bitter. It's actually a point that the psychiatrist in the film makes, how skin patients often have more depression, since it is such a huge part of how we and others see ourselves. In terms of the movie, it means he is a rather unlikeable lead character, but at the same time rather funny. He's the bitter no-longer-gives-a-damn sort of character that says what everyone else wants to.
The acting was wonderful. Just a great cast. Gambon is a very solid lead, bitter and acerbic as modern Marlow, then smooth and cynical as the 1940s character. He makes an unlikeable character (as written) almost sympathetic. And seeing Marlow improve mentally and physically is definitely a journey.
Thinking of the cast, there were several faces that were so out of context for me... well, I missed them. Just the nagging "I know them from somewhere" feeling that I couldn't place. Anne, you'll be ashamed of me as I rattle off here all the faces I couldn't place:
Oh, and as a random side note on my crazy thought process... I chattered about Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr just recently. Another detective movie that RDJ has made was the movie version of The Singing Detective (2003). No, that wasn't planned. :) RDJ played the lead in the movie version, who for some reason was renamed Dan Dark for the movie instead of Philip Marlow. Don't know why they did that, since there are several references to Philip being named after such a famous character. After watching the miniseries, I'm intrigued by the movie, because it seems that they really needed all the time a miniseries offered to explore all the ins and outs of Marlow's mental wanderings. Seems that a 2 hour movie would rush things a bit. Makes me wonder how they handled it all in the shorter format. Oh, and Binney is played by Jeremy Northam in the movie, so that makes it interesting too :) Guess I'll have to add that one to the queue now too!
Overall: 3.5 of 5. Beautifully acted and written, and I'm glad I watched it once. It's just not the sort of movie I'd pick up and watch again and again. One of those classics to see once and appreciate, not one to watch over and over. But then, surreal sorts of books and movies were never really my cup of tea.
This is an interesting one. Honestly, after the first disc, I wasn't sure how they would end it. It was such a dark beginning. Because he's dealing with a skin disorder, not just the joint pain, etc, he is very depressed and bitter. It's actually a point that the psychiatrist in the film makes, how skin patients often have more depression, since it is such a huge part of how we and others see ourselves. In terms of the movie, it means he is a rather unlikeable lead character, but at the same time rather funny. He's the bitter no-longer-gives-a-damn sort of character that says what everyone else wants to.
The acting was wonderful. Just a great cast. Gambon is a very solid lead, bitter and acerbic as modern Marlow, then smooth and cynical as the 1940s character. He makes an unlikeable character (as written) almost sympathetic. And seeing Marlow improve mentally and physically is definitely a journey.
Thinking of the cast, there were several faces that were so out of context for me... well, I missed them. Just the nagging "I know them from somewhere" feeling that I couldn't place. Anne, you'll be ashamed of me as I rattle off here all the faces I couldn't place:
- Mrs. Marlow (Philip's mother) is played by Alison Steadman, Mrs. Bennet from the BBC P&P version.
- Nurse Mills is Joanne Whalley, Sorsha in Willow, which I've seen a dozen times easily, though here she's got her natural brunette coloring.
- The schoolteacher is played by Janet Henfrey, who plays Mrs. Bale in As Time Goes By (can't BELIEVE I missed that one!).
- Young Philip is played by Lyndon Davies, who plays Perkins in the Sharpe's series. At least this one I think I've an excuse for, as he's 10 years younger here than in Sharpe's.
Oh, and as a random side note on my crazy thought process... I chattered about Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr just recently. Another detective movie that RDJ has made was the movie version of The Singing Detective (2003). No, that wasn't planned. :) RDJ played the lead in the movie version, who for some reason was renamed Dan Dark for the movie instead of Philip Marlow. Don't know why they did that, since there are several references to Philip being named after such a famous character. After watching the miniseries, I'm intrigued by the movie, because it seems that they really needed all the time a miniseries offered to explore all the ins and outs of Marlow's mental wanderings. Seems that a 2 hour movie would rush things a bit. Makes me wonder how they handled it all in the shorter format. Oh, and Binney is played by Jeremy Northam in the movie, so that makes it interesting too :) Guess I'll have to add that one to the queue now too!
Overall: 3.5 of 5. Beautifully acted and written, and I'm glad I watched it once. It's just not the sort of movie I'd pick up and watch again and again. One of those classics to see once and appreciate, not one to watch over and over. But then, surreal sorts of books and movies were never really my cup of tea.
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