Frequently clunky and confusing and a little misguided, this mystery nevertheless has two things going for it: a decent story and a solid performance by Crowe. Sleeping Dogs is based on a novel by E.O. Chirovici, which would explain why the moving parts of its puzzle work so well. At one point, it looks as though everyone is guilty, and it's truly difficult to guess the solution. But the film is also screenwriter Adam Cooper's (responsible for Accepted, Exodus: Gods and Kings, The Transporter Refueled, The Divergent Series: Allegiant, and Assassin's Creed) directorial debut, and he hasn't quite found his footing. He uses many flashbacks that make things more muddled than they are intriguing. At one point, a character is introduced as being with the Department of Defense and then later, she seems to be associated with a university.

Another problem is the Alzheimer's angle. Roy is introduced as someone with severe memory problems (he leaves notes all around his apartment to remind him who he is, etc.). But once he starts working on the case, he seems fine. (He has received a "radical" treatment designed to create new neural pathways in his brain.) The movie requires that he has no memory of events 10 years ago, but that's more like amnesia than Alzheimer's, which feels like an unfair, callous use of a troubling real-life illness. But Crowe finds a quiet grace in the role, a measured thoughtfulness that's magnetic. It's easy to want to follow him. Sleeping Dogs is certainly flawed, but it works well enough to warrant a late-night viewing.