Created by Bård 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 | Watch the trailer
(aka “Detective Downs”)
(2013, Friland Produksjon AS)
90 minutes
Written and directed by Bård 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.