Review: Sherlock Holmes
I have been looking forward to seeing the new Sherlock Holmes movie for some time. I haven’t been to a movie on Christmas day for many years. I used to do it all the time. I even talked my teenage daughter into coming with me and she has been opposed to being seen with me in a theatre for many years as well, so that was fun.
As I mentioned before, they wanted to do a hip, action-packed version of Sherlock Holmes. While the movie veers some from the essence of Holmes and Watson, much of this new interpretation stays fairly true to the original. Holmes’ moods, firing weapons in his Baker Street room and conducting weird experiments. One scene involving Holmes in a disguise is particularly clever.
There are a lot of fight scenes and Holmes did have knowledge of martial arts: True, though there is a lot more boxing and brawls in the movie.
Holmes was romantically involved with Irene Adler: False. Irene Adler appeared in the Sherlock Holmes story A Scandal in Bohemia.
Irene Adler was the only woman to outwit Sherlock Holmes: True, though the client considered the case successfully solved.
Holmes kept a picture of Irene Adler: True.
In one scene, Watson punches Holmes in the face: False. John would never have done it.
Watson at some point gambled too much: True.
In the movie, Watson is preparing to leave Baker Street to be married: True.
Sherlock has a brother named Mycroft: True.
A prominent Scotland Yard detective in the movie is named Lestrade: True.
I may think of more later.
I liked the look of the movie, the London streets and horse-drawn cabs are as you’d expect them to look in a Holmes story. Robert Downey, Jr. as I’ve said before looks nothing like Holmes, but I thought he did a good job. He even says things straight from the original stories. If Sherlock Holmes had no complex problem to solve, you might find him lethargic, stoned in his room for days on end: True.
The story involves a sinister villian who supposedly rises from the grave to take over the world through black magic, but can Holmes expose him as a fraud and stop his plan of world domination?
At the end of the movie, I like how they tie everything in to Professor Moriarty, who was the arch enemy of Holmes in the original stories. I believe he was responsible for about half of the evil in London.
Aside from rolling my eyes one or two times, much of what I like about Sherlock Holmes is there. There are a couple double entendres between Holmes and Watson I could have done without. Whether it’s done as a joke, or as a little something for people who’ve never read Sherlock Holmes and think they’re gay, or whether I’m reading too much into it, who knows. But Holmes and Watson are not gay. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
My favorite Holmes and Watson are Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke, but I think Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law did a pretty good job and I’d see a sequel.
There is excitement enough in the original stories, but they wanted to do a hip, action-packed version and I think they hit their mark. Hopefully, it will get some people interested in picking up a book and reading those wonderful stories.
