'Sleeping Dogs': Russell Crowe plays it subtle as ex-cop with dementia

Two weeks after Michael Keaton played an aging hit man with dementia in “Knox Goes Away” and two years after Liam Neeson played an aging hit man with dementia in “Memory,” Russell Crowe plays a former police detective with dementia in “Sleeping Dogs.” One can understand why these great actors would be drawn to such roles — and why Anthony Hopkins won Oscar for portraying a man with dementia in 2020’s “The Father.” Playing a tragic and complex character with a dark past who is experiencing a decline in cognitive abilities and will soon forget that past opens the door to conveying a myriad of emotions. It’s sobering but also rich dramatic material.

Crowe’s subtle and vulnerable performance as former homicide cop Roy Freeman is the best thing about “Sleeping Dogs,” which is based on the novel “The Book of Mirrors” by E.O. Chirovici, with Adam Cooper making his feature-length directorial debut and co-writing the adaptation with Bill Collage. Like Roy, we are often in the dark about what’s happening and how it all ties together, and there’s an extended flashback sequence that shifts the point of view to a character who isn’t as interesting as Roy.

But when we reach the last in a series of twists that range from plausible to borderline this-makes-no-sense-whatsoever, “Sleeping Dogs” proves to be a hauntingly effective case study of a man who remembers enough of his past to know he didn’t always do the right thing, and is determined to set things straight before it’s too late.

Crowe’s Roy is a hulking bear of a man with a bushy beard and two jarring suture scars on his shaved head, from an experimental form of surgery designed to slow or even partially reverse his advancing dementia. When Roy awakens in his shabby apartment, he sees hand-printed reminders taped on the walls, the refrigerator, in the bathroom:

YOUR NAME IS ROY FREEMAN

DON’T DRINK ALCOHOL

TRASH NIGHT IS WEDNESDAY

FROZEN MEALS HERE

IT’S OKAY

When Roy agrees to meet with a convicted murder named Isaac Samuel (Pacharo Mzembe) who is weeks away from execution — a man he doesn’t remember, from a long-ago case he can’t recall — Isaac claims Roy knew he was innocent at the time and pleads with Roy to revisit the case. This leads to a labyrinthine deep dive that will remind Roy of his alcoholism and of his disgraceful exit from the force, but it could also mean redemption for Roy and justice for Isaac.

He meets up with his old partner, Jimmy (Tommy Flanagan from “Sons of Anarchy”), who suggests it might be better to let sleeping dogs lie. In flashback sequences, we learn the case was about the murder of renowned college professor Dr. Joseph Wieder (the brilliant New Zealand actor Marton Csokas), a manipulative and slimy sort who made a number of enemies, including an aspiring writer named Harry Greenwood (Richard Finn) and Wieder’s research assistant, Laura Baines (Karen Gillan), who claimed Weider had stolen her work. Finn plays Harry as unhinged and obsessed with Laura, while Gillan goes full femme fatale and delivers her lines in what appear to be deliberately flat tones. (It’s the kind of performance you either buy or you don’t; I kept my wallet closed.)

“Sleeping Dogs” has pacing problems, and the direction is competent but not particularly stylish. What holds the film together, and what holds our attention to the very end, is the powerful performance by Russell Crowe as a man haunted by demons he can’t quite remember.