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Sherlock Holmes
And this is Sherlock Holmes through the Guy Ritchie prism. An action buddy caper flick to bring Arthur Conan Doyle's celebrated hobbyist detective into the sphere of Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels. Being largely ignorant of Doyle's stories myself, a cursory glance at the appropriate Wiki page suggests Ritchie's interpretation may not be far from the mark but it does feel off kilter to 20th century generations raised on Basil Rathbone pop culture. It does, however, confirm (yet again) that Ritchie is capable of making only one kind of movie. Whether this is a burden or a boon depends on one's regards for Ritchie's prior body of work.
Sherlock Holmes vis-à-vis Ritchie favours action movie over suspense mystery and the film is generally poorer for it. Part of the appeal of a whodunit is allowing the audience a stab at solving the mystery and the inherent intrigue this affords. Here Ritchie shows us the outcome and then points out the cleverness of Holmes' deductions in flashback. This results in a decidedly vanilla film whose flat pacing continues right up to its predictable conclusion whereby Holmes dispels all paranormal possibilities with an inevitable proclamation of rational thought. This is not so much a climactic revelation as a wholly expected outcome.
There are positives, however, in the excellent witty banter between Holmes and Watson that is a joy to behold and the delivery by Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law, respectively, is just great. This is far and away the highlight of the film, saving it from mediocrity and singly justifying the price of admission. Sadly, the thoroughly affable Rachel McAdams is largely inconsequential; a small edit would have removed her from the script entirely.
Following on from the trend of the latest James Bond flicks, Ritchie fails to end the film definitively, instead suggesting a sequel which, given the elementary treatment here, seems more than a little superfluous.
Stuart Jamieson
www.sherlock-holmes-movie.warnerbros.com
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