“Sleeping Dogs,” starring Russell Crowe as a retired cop with Alzheimer’s disease, is a half-rusted scrap heap of a detective mystery. It’s patchy, it’s badly lit, it’s glum, it’s overloaded with suspects, and it’s almost proud of its contrivances. Yet in its logy, booby-trapped way, it keeps you watching.
Crowe, with a white beard and shaved head that make him look like Santa Claus as a melancholy biker, plays Roy Freeman, who was forced to turn in his badge after he caused a drunk-driving accident. Now, he’s in the thick of serious midstage dementia; he has written labels on masking tape and plastered them around his apartment, so that he’ll be reminded of everything from his own name to where the hot water is. The gloss on “Memento” is obvious enough, but it’s also a coincidence that the film is being...
Crowe, with a white beard and shaved head that make him look like Santa Claus as a melancholy biker, plays Roy Freeman, who was forced to turn in his badge after he caused a drunk-driving accident. Now, he’s in the thick of serious midstage dementia; he has written labels on masking tape and plastered them around his apartment, so that he’ll be reminded of everything from his own name to where the hot water is. The gloss on “Memento” is obvious enough, but it’s also a coincidence that the film is being...
- 3/23/2024
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
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