Created by BÃ¥rd Breien
It’s not often you get to see a private eye flick where the gumshoe has Down Syndrome, but that’s exactly what the so far well-received Detective Downs, a 2013 Norweigian comedy mystery that made the North American film festival circuit, promised.
ROBERT BOGERUD is the sleuth in question. He’s twenty-eight, and happily runs his very own detective agency, even if he never seems to have any clients. That’s okay–he’s got a spiffy trench coat and a snazzy fedora, and he’s learned to dangle a gasper from his bottom lip just so. Everything’s fine.
Until, that is, hot shot speed skater (and scam artist) Olav Starr goes missing, presumably kidnapped, and his family needs a patsy to appease their rich but senile grandmother.
They think Robert is perfect for the job, but when things take a turn for the worse, Robert reveals hidden depths and turns out not to be quite the incompetent sucker they thought they’d hired.
It’s hard to tell from a short trailer on YouTube, but this actually looks pretty intriguing. For one thing, it looks like an actual hard-boiled mystery, not above sending up some of the genre’s most beloved tropes and tossing in a few bits the audience may not be expecting (penis pumps, anyone?), and for another, it’s refreshing to see a film confront Robert’s condition rather than simply exploit it.
And I’m all for that.
FILMS
- DETEKTIV DOWNS |Â Watch the trailer
(aka “Detective Downs”)
(2013, Friland Produksjon AS)
90 minutes
Written and directed by BÃ¥rd Breien
Starring Svein Andre Hofsø as ROBERT BOGERUD
Also starring Sven Nordin, Ida Elise Broch, Nils Jørgen Kaalstad, Kari Simonsen
FURTHER INVESTIGATION
- Defective Detectives
The Pulps & Beyond
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.