Sleeping Dogs — Sleeping Dogs(VOD)
Sleeping Dogs, a new mystery thriller directed by Adam Cooper and based on The Book of Mirrors a 2017 best seller by E O Chirovici makes its streaming debut on 21 June via Prime Video
The film concerns retired detective Roy Freeman (Russell Crowe) who is receiving an experimental treatment for Alzheimer's and has been tasked by Emily Dietz (Kelly Grayson), the advocate for a prisoner, Isaac Samuel (Pacharo Mzembe) to reinvestigate Samuel's case. The prisoner has been found guilty of the murder of Dr Joseph Wieder (Martin Csokas) and is facing imminent execution but still maintains his innocence. Roy is brought into contact with a number of suspicious and mysterious individuals, most notably the glamorous and ambiguous dual-identity figure of Laura Baines/Dr Elizabeth Westlake (Karen Gillan). Roy's investigation and his partially recovering memory (he was a detective on the original case) help him solve the mystery. But there is one more final twist.
Sleeping Dogs is a generally entertaining effort but suffers from such uneven and abrupt changes in tonality that the viewer is shocked back into the realisation that they are watching fiction. The movie starts out as a very gritty Zodiac-type thriller with sweary, grouchy cops arguing at crime scenes in generally desaturated images underlaid by an ominous synth score. However, once the film decides to dramatise the diary of a deceased suspect, Richard Finn (Harry Greenwood), the stylistics change dramatically. With the relocation to a rather frou-frou academic setting, the colour palette becomes relatively vibrant, the characterisation somewhat old-fashioned and the score becomes orchestral. Of course, different socioeconomic settings require different approaches but the shift here is so stark that each part of the film seems to resemble a parody.
Cooper has assembled an excellent cast. Crowe who has happily accepted corpulence in middle age at times resembles John Goodman, at other times Orson Welles. However, his presence and intensity remain undiminished. The movie's second lead, Karen Gillan, in the role of the femme fatale, has had her auburn hair dyed dark brown to bring her closer to the type of fatal brunette of '40s Noir. Perhaps in her poise, wardrobe and mannered accent, she cleaves a little too closely to the archetype. She sometimes seems to have been lifted from an old monochrome movie. All that's missing is a little hat with a veil.
It's possible that the story succeeded more in book form than on screen. There may have been more mystery about the connection between Baines and Westlake which in this adaptation is given away automatically. There may have been an unreliable narrator element to Finn's account which could be given credence by his brother describing it as rubbish. This would explain the excruciating literary banter between Finn and Laura which results in the horny duo almost immediately making out on a table in an empty room.
Sleeping Dogs is an atmospheric and well-plotted thriller that only occasionally gives way to silliness. And it is always worth watching for Russell Crowe's committed performance.