Sherlock Holmes

J: “Sherlock Holmes” is a thrilling, if a bit exhausting, piece of filmmaking and quite enjoyable. This is one of those movies that have been on our radar since the first trailer hit theaters some time ago, with its intriguing director, Guy Ritchie, and high eye-candy quotient in Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law. In those things this movie did not disappoint.

There can be little argument that Guy Ritchie is a “guy’s” director so one can expect A LOT of action sequences but very interestingly done and Sherlock Holmes is definitely all that and a bag of popcorn. BUT, and yes it’s a big “but”, this movie could have benefited by cutting the action back a bit and letting Robert Downey Jr.’s Sherlock do a little more cerebral sleuthing. The constant onslaught of fights, chases and explosions had me thoroughly exhausted at about two thirds through the movie.

The other hallmark of a Ritchie film is his always interesting and complex characters. In this film, he gets to put his spin on established literary characters and does a very good job of making both Holmes and Dr. Watson (Jude Law) flawed but fascinating figures. Particularly Dr. Watson, who in the past has gotten a somewhat dim-witted treatment – obviously to make Holmes seem even more the genius. This movie portrays them more as equals and actually gives the good doctor a love interest (played by Kelly Reilly), who is taking him away from Holmes and Holmes does not like that much. The opening scene finds the two men rushing to stop the antagonist, Lord Henry Blackwood (Mark Strong), from committing a ritualistic murder of a young woman. And they do so, in the nick of time, naturally. In a few months, Holmes is called to Lord Blackwood’s jail cell just prior to his hanging where Blackwood delivers some ominous warnings about murders yet to come for Holmes to chew on and we get to see that his cell walls are covered with strange occultism markings. Soon after, Lord Blackwell is hung, although not well (sorry about that – don’t often get to use a pun that good!) and Dr. Watson confirms his death. Ah, but apparently death does not come swiftly to Blackwell as his tomb is smashed open from the inside and his coffin contains the body of a red-haired dwarf – ironically, the same dwarf a certain woman from Holmes’ past has hired him to find. Rachel McAdams plays Irene Adler, an American con artist who is the only person to outsmart Holmes – twice in fact, which doesn’t say much for this Holmes’ ability to keep his fly buttoned.

Even though we have had a couple of fights and at least one extended chase scene by this point, the action only continues to ramp up, with fights and explosions in abundance. And this is my one issue with this movie. As I said at the very beginning, the action sequences, while well done and very exciting, overpower the film and take away what should be the true heart of this movie – Holmes and Watson cleverly observing clues and making all the correct assumptions. All of the clues that Holmes collects throughout the course of the film are explained away in a few scant minutes at the end of the movie. Rarely, really only in Holmes’ descriptions of his coupe-de-gras in beating his fight opponents, do we ever get to witness the super-human ability of Holmes to grasp and correlate the clues as he goes along in his investigations. And that is exactly what any Sherlock Holmes movie is supposed to accomplish. While I have no problems with the new takes on the characters and did very much enjoy the “buddy movie” feel in the relationship between Holmes and Watson (including some very witty repartee), Sherlock Holmes is a detective who can take the most mundane item and turn it into the solution to the crime – something that was missed by all others – and that is what this film needs to be a worthy Sherlock Holmes picture. Now, as we clearly get the set-up for the next movie in the introduction of a truly Holmes-ian character (won’t be the spoiler here) it would be well worth mentioning this small bit of advice. Hopefully, in the next installment, we will see a more cerebral Holmes that is less the pugilist and more the brilliant detective.

K: This was a fun movie and I enjoyed watching it, but it could have used about 20 minutes of editing in the middle of the movie. I would have liked to have seen more of Holmes' powers of deduction in action instead of saving it all up for the end. However, I definitely recommend it to everyone.