Sleeping Dogs

Rating: 8/10

Director: Adam Cooper

Writers: Adam Cooper and Bill Collage

Based on: “The Book of Mirrors” by E.O. Chirovici

Style: Action Crime Thriller

Time: 1 hour and 50 minutes

Rating: R

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2S9unF0f-s

Review by Mike Szymanski

A noir thriller these days generally consists of stark, dark indy gritty movies with simple, but clever plots, and a big-name star who normally wouldn’t do a film like this.

And that’s what Adam Cooper accomplished in his impressive directorial debut: “Sleeping Dogs” (not to be confused with the video game or “Sleeping Dog” the international Netflix series). He casts Oscar-winner Russell Crowe in an introspective role while he is keeping himself relatively sane by doing puzzles.

And a puzzle this film is, from beginning to end, in a satisfying crime action thriller from writers Cooper and Bill Collage. They are a writing team who brought us commendable thrillers like “Assassin’s Creed,” “Allegiant,” “The Transporter Refueled” and one of my favorite youth comedies “Accepted.”

This twisty, story is reminiscent of Christopher Nolan’s unique “Memento” where memories play a big part of the plot line.

Cooper was impressed by the book that the movie is based on called “The Book of Mirrors” by Romanian writer E.O. Chirovici. He was fascinated by memories, and the idea of “letting sleeping dogs lie” which is a key element of the film.

“I was really drawn to this idea that memory is very much just a point of view,” says the accomplished writer, who always wanted to direct a film. “There’s a lot of different truths on events that transpired in anybody’s past, and everybody remembers things differently.”

And Russell Crowe’s character is told in no uncertain terms: “You may not have memories but you do have quite the imagination.”

Roy, played by Crowe, investigates the murder of Professor Joseph Weider (Marton Csokas) and is intrigued by some inconsistencies in the bloody scene of the professor who died of a blunt object to the head. He notes that a lot of mysterious people were at the scene of the crime.

One of those people is Richard Finn, a writer, who unusually has written a book with the same plot as this murder. Finn is played by cute Harry Greenwood from “Hacksaw Ridge.”

Roy is suffering from alcoholism and Alzheimer’s disease and to deal with his encroaching forgetfulness, is willing to try an experimental procedure that makes the back of his head look like a zipper.

Crowe’s character has to label everything in his house and even which way his pre-prepared meals go into the microwave. Roy is determined that the convict accused of the murder is innocent. Played by Pacharo Mzembe, the convict to believe him.

Roy’s former partner Jimmy tries to pull him off this obsession. Played by Tommy Flanagan, Jimmy admits that the cops they were back in the day were not all that squeaky clean, saying “We all rank on the job back then.”

Everyone is a suspect, and some suspects seem as if they are phantoms who don’t even exist.

The film is based on a popular book and Cooper himself admits he had some concerns about changing the ending of the book, but he is the one who says it best: “I think it’s going to shock a lot of people. You’re in for a real ride.”

“Sleeping Dogs” distributed by The Avenue and Highland Film Group opens March 22, 2024 in theaters only.

###

Russell Crowe