Directed by: Adam Cooper

Release: 03/24

Starring: Karen Gillan, Russell Crowe

Streaming: Netflix

Story: Roy Freeman (Crowe) dives back into a murder case when convinced he convicted the wrong man. His Alzheimer’s means he will have to put the pieces together all over again.

What is the hook?: Crowe plays his age and stature, an out-of-shape retired detective with the most inconvenient form of Alzheimer’s on the earth. He has to reintroduce himself to every key witness, and put the puzzle together with zero understanding of how it happened. Sleeping Dogs reveals pieces with every interview

Does the hook work?: The story of Sleeping Dogs has a pretty convincing Memento gimmick, but then it goes off the rails introducing the backstory of Karen Gillan. It is like a new movie starts in the middle.

What about the end?: Sleeping Dogs has a rough time getting its facts straight. You have Crowe’s shady partner, a creepy college professor, a PTSD war veteran, a pathological liar novelist, and Karen’s very conflicted character. The second half of the film has her delivering her lines so dry and robotic, I thought the big reveal was she was a Dalek. But all the facts collapse like a house of cards when the movie reveals it was all just a red herring for the real reveal.

The Message of Sleeping Dogs: The movie peppers the moral throughout the scene with multiple characters telling Crowe that it is better to forget your past than live with it. The brain blocks out trauma to preserve itself, and that is Crowe’s saving grace–until he uncovers what he was blocking.

Stuff: Sleeping Dogs has plenty of F bombs, Vivid sex scenes (with zero nudity), a gory bludgeoning scene, and some violent shootings.

Recommended: 6 out of 10.  Sleeping Dogs is a journey. Learning about the case simultaneously as Crowe is a clever hook, but the film’s details could stand to be sharper and more coherent. Also, Karen turns into a robot in the second half of the film.