Mad Detective

Perhaps mistakenly billed as a "buddy comedy" on the SIFF website, Mad Detective oscillates between nervous laughter, gruesome insanity, and tense mystery.

The main character is a brilliant but disturbed detective, who sees inner personalities as physically distinct people and solves crimes by re-enacting the actions of the victims in obsessive detail. Fired from the police force and re-enlisted by his one-time partner to help with a stale case involving a murdered officer, he is in danger of losing control again.

The film is beautifully shot but intentionally dark and gritty to the point of being depressing. The characters are all extremely flawed, and quite well played. I found the plot a bit convoluted, but the journey is a hell of a lot of fun, especially when the hero is simultaneously confronting seven physical personalities of a suspect.

While the comedy is quite good, the dramatic aspects are better than I expected. The main character has plenty of sadness in his past, and it's played quite well. And maybe it's just me, but the overarching theme of failure brought everything together brilliantly.