DAVID ADAMS reviews the latest in a long line of films celebrating Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous detective…
Mr Holmes (M)
In a word: Elementary
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“Well acted, well scripted, well done.” |
The effects of age befall all of us in time and Sherlock Holmes, master of deductive reasoning though he may be, is apparently no different.
Set after World War II, Holmes (played by Ian McKellen) is in his nineties by the time of this movie, although much of the action is set some 25 years before when Sherlock was working on his last case.
It’s that which forms the core of the film’s ‘mystery’ – battling senility, Holmes is on a quest to remember what it was about that final case that led him to his retirement on the south coast.
He’s aided in his quest by his young housekeeper’s son Roger (played by Milo Parker) and it’s their friendship, not something encouraged by Roger’s mother, Mrs Munro (Laura Linney), that helps bring new life to the now crusty old detective whose passion in life, his search for an cure for his senility aside, is his bees.
There’s no sign of the athletic, action hero Holmes we last saw on the big screen played by Robert Downey Jr here – this Holmes is much more in the more traditional mould; a back-to-basics, one could say elementary, version with the focus more on the story’s original elements as opposed to the more modern interpretations we’ve seen on screens both big and small in recent times.
Directed by Bill Condon, the film also plays with the idea of fiction and reality – who, exactly, is the real Holmes and what resemblance does he bear to the aging figure we see in this film? (It’s a pertinent point given that even today some who turn up at the Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221B Baker Street in London are under the mistaken belief he is a real character).
The acting is the highlight here and Sir Ian shines in the role, ably supported by Parker and Linney. At its essence, this is the story of an old man coming to terms with his mortality and a young boy and his mother struggling through life in the absence of a father and husband (he was killed during the war). There’s sadness in the telling but also hope and, of course, it’s hope that wins out in the end.
Well acted, well scripted, well done.
