Sleeping Dogs
In an implausible procedural, a cop with Alzheimer’s attempts to piece together the memories of a ten-year-old murder case.
Pieces of the puzzle: Russell Crowe
Image courtesy of Signature Entertainment
Roy Freeman (Russell Crowe) is just a shell of the man he used to be. He keeps his mail in the fridge, his TV remote in the microwave and his gun in the cereal box. Once a highly decorated cop with the Washington County Police, he now lives on his own surrounded by hand-written signs taped to the walls. There are notes to himself that say things like, ‘Don’t Drink Alcohol,’ ‘Shoe Size: 11,’ ‘Your Name is Roy Freeman,’ ‘You Have Alzheimer’s.’
Conversely, Laura Baines (Karen Gillan) is an academic who knows everything about everything, can speak five languages, is a double bachelor in art history and neuroscience, has a masters in math and whose thesis is none other than ‘Memory Reconsolidation Through Accelerated Resolution Theory.’ She’s also a suspect in the murder of her mentor, Dr Joseph Wieder (Marton Csokas).
As Roy Freeman is struggling to remember how to tie his own shoelaces, he is approached by a woman representing a prison inmate on Death Row, who is due to be executed in four weeks. Can Freeman remember anything about the man’s arrest, his interview, his confession? The prisoner, Isaac Samuel (Pacharo Mzembe), has had ten years to turn over the events in his head and now that he is clean of drugs, he remembers only too well that his confession was coerced out of him. Freeman’s doctor tells him that he has to keep his mind engaged, stimulated, and perhaps he should take up the odd mental challenge, like a jigsaw puzzle. Better still, Freeman finds that his belated investigation into the murder of Dr Wieder starts to shuffle the shards of his memory into some kind of order…
At the heart of Sleeping Dogs is a mesmerising premise: a man without a memory chasing an elusive brainiac while opening up a murder case in which he was involved… Based on the novel The Book of Mirrors by E.O. Chirovici, the film feels like it might have been a better read than a movie. While Russell Crowe, gradually morphing into a latter-day Rod Steiger, lends gravitas to his role, and nobody does neuroscience like Karen Gillan, the supporting players leave a lot to be desired. Marton Csokas, doing his sleazy Kevin Spacey schtick yet again, is as unbelievable as the rest of them, ciphers to the manner born. The droning cello on the soundtrack further distances the viewer from any sense of reality, while the flashbacks stack up like a quivering house of cards.
First-time director Adam Cooper starts his story with some assurance – favouring a bleached-out colour palette in the Melbourne streets doubling for Washington state – but as the events become ever increasingly ridiculous, he feeds the melodrama with mounting hysteria and cliché. And Cooper and Bill Collage’s dialogue really does stick in the actors’ mouths. An improbable lover of Laura’s confides, “she made me feel the best version of myself,” moments before she orders him to “choke me!” Suddenly we feel like we’ve been transplanted back to the 1980s and 1990s. Apparently, B-movies are still out there flourishing on a streaming platform near you.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Russell Crowe, Karen Gillan, Marton Csokas, Thomas M. Wright, Harry Greenwood, Tommy Flanagan, Pacharo Mzembe, Elizabeth Blackmore, Kelly Greyson, Ming-Zhu Hii, Lynn Gilmartin.
Dir Adam Cooper, Pro Deborah Glover, Pouya Shabazian, Bill Collage, Henry Winterstern, Arun Kumar, Mark Fasano and Adam Cooper, Screenplay Adam Cooper and Bill Collage, from the novel The Book of Mirrors by E.O. Chirovici, Ph Ben Nott, Pro Des Penny Southgate, Ed Matt Villa, Music David Hirschfelder, Costumes Zed Dragojlovich, Sound Dylan Barfield, Dialect coach Ryan O’Grady.
Nickel City Productions/Highland Film Group-Signature Entertainment/Amazon Prime.
111 mins. USA/Australia. 2023. US Rel: 22 March 2024. UK Rel: 21 June 2024. Cert. 18.
