Sherlock Holmes (***½)
Directed by: Guy Ritchie Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Mark Strong, Rachel McAdams, Eddie Marsan, Kelly Reilly
Seen: January 5th 2010
***½ Out of ****
Guy Ritchie, after some failures in his Madonna years, and the relative success of Rock-n-Rolla, is back in a big way with Sherlock Holmes. The movie is not perfect, but it comes close enough to demand a cigar. The movie starts with an ingenious device which details Sherlock Holmes’ thinking while planning a fight that is just downright damn cool. But then it only uses that same device once more a few minutes later and forgets about it for the rest of the movie. But that is a small gripe I have, not enough to dent my enjoyment of the movie.
Firstly I must also make mention of the fact that I am absolutely unversed in Sherlock Holmes lore. I’ve never seen any other movie or TV-adaptation and I’ve never read any of the books by Arthur Conan Doyle, not a one. That aside, let me get to the story. The movie starts with Sherlock Holmes (Downey Jr.) and Dr. John Watson (Law) racing to save a life. The life in question is that of a young woman being sacrificed by Lord Blackwood (Strong) in an effort to increase his “powers”. They manage to stop the sacrifice and arrest Blackwood, who is sentenced to death soon afterwards, Watson is even the physician on duty to certify Blackwood’s death.
But that plays directly to Blackwood’s plans, as his powers have grown to such a level that he can apparently thwart death itself. This is a relief for Holmes, as the time he has spent at home between arresting Blackwood and him being executed has been nothing but a dead patch. They are back on the case, and things continue to seem more and more evil as Blackwood kills characters with regular efficiency, but never by regular means – rather by means of smokescreen tactics that has everyone believing he has powers that have, before now, only been talked about in ghost stories.
Holmes is at his irrepressible best and his genius knows almost no bounds, as we are shown right throughout the movie. If not simply Holmes being able to pinpoint exactly where he is abducted to by identifying smells and bumps from the carriage, then by much more intelligent deductions made from acute observation of the environment around him. Legendary detective indeed. The movie might seem evil at some point, what with all the occult imagery and ”spell-casting” going on, but eventually Sherlock Holmes makes perfect sense of all, in a uniquely entertaining way. Exposition takes a slightly overblown role near the end, but refreshingly enough it is not delivered by a villain, but by Sherlock Holmes himself.
The movie is incredibly entertaining, the action set-pieces have a scale to them that makes Victorian London seem cool for pretty much the first time ever, and you rarely get the chance to remember that your mouth is still agape in the scenes in-between since the dialogue is fast and entertaining, whether it is Holmes postulating theories or simply banter between Holmes and any other character. Sherlock Holmes is entertainment of the highest degree, and I fully intend on watching it again (and maybe even again).
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