Sherlock
Holmes
If you are a fan of Basil Rathbone as a stuffier, cooler, calmer
Sherlock Holmes, Robert Downey, Jr. might not exactly be your cup of
tea. He is more of a Dr. House-like Sherlock Homes, which works just
fine for me (and anyone who has no idea who Basil Rathbone is).
Downey stars as Sherlock Holmes - a British consulting detective well
known for his brilliant mind and use of deductive reasoning to solve
the toughest of cases. He's also a major gadfly, obnoxious and sloppy.
After spending several years working together to solve many cases, Dr.
Watson (Jude Law), has decided to break up the team and get married,
but their last case is one that is coming back to haunt them.
Holmes and Watson arrested Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong) and Watson even
pronounced him dead after the execution, but sightings of the evil
politician have been increasing and causing great panic throughout
London. The villainous practitioner of black magic promised Holmes he
would not be able to stop three deaths and would go insane, so our hero
has a vested interest in finding Lord Blackwell, or the imposter trying
to invoke his name.
Is this really Lord Blackwell?
What is his goal?
Will Holmes be led astray by his old flame, Irene Adler (Rachel
McAdams)?
Director Guy Ritchie and the writing team (Michael Robert Johnson,
Anthony Peckham and Simon Kinberg) have reinvented Sherlock Holmes into
a modern, flawed hero, but their true triumph in this movie is making
Watson and Holmes one of the most interesting and entertaining
bickering couples on the screen today.
The two are equals, as opposed to Watson being the sidekick and loyal
assistant, which makes their silly disputes funnier and more
fascinating. They have the great chemistry romantic comedy movie
casting directors desperately seek (the people who made Did You Hear About The Morgans?
probably wish they cast Downey and Law instead of Hugh Grant and Sarah
Jessica Parker), and watching the two of them reacting to the same
scene and information is a delight as Law as Watson shows you the fear
the audience is feeling, while Downey shows you Holmes becoming more
excited, which helps define both characters.
While the plot is a strange, twisty and not always well explained
series of clues we don't get to solve (Holmes has a way of seeing the
clue and explaining it all before the audience gets a chance to take a
crack at it), Ritchie puts in a welcome, hilarious and surprisingly
goofy tone to go along with the sleuthing and action sequences. It's a
tasty mélange that could use a bit more sleuthing, but the
audience has to respect the ingenious escapes made by Watson and
Holmes, which show off each character's abilities, as well as thrilling
the crowd with last minute, death defying feats.
Sadly, Ritchie and the writing team try a bit too hard to set up a
sequel, which makes Sherlock Holmes a little too complicated
for its own good, but I would still see this for the 100th time before
I ever stepped foot into any theater playing Alvin and the
Chipmunks: The Squeakquel.
Sherlock Holmes is rated PG-13 for intense
sequences of violence and action, some startling images and a scene of
suggestive material.
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