 Sherlock
Holmes
Directed by: Guy Ritchie
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Rachel McAdams etc.
Buy
Sherlock Holmes on DVD
I remember
it so well...
The
world I'd woken to had a kind of shimmer about it that cold day...
I
learned shorlty the glimmer must be some weird endorphin goo left
over from overhearing an official announcement that a new Sherlock
Holmes would be played by Robert Downey Jr.
Be still my male-loving little heart!
But there was more... Jude Law would be mixed into the pate as
Watson.
Trailers
leaked and advertising started early. My brow grew misty, my patience
thin.
When
the confounded thing was finally released I skipped to the theater
on a high not known since the days of Pomegranate juice Martinis
at Matalini’s.
The
chemistry between Downey and Law is superb as one expected –
the script is not.
Director
Guy Ritchie seems to swing like a pendulum between brilliance
and braun. Here, he has landed in the middle – saved only
by the caliber of his Sherlock and Watson beneath the costuming.
The
wafer-thin story follows some evil no gooder, dressed in black,
with the black hair and heart, named Blackwood who has decided
he’s going to use the black arts to reinvent and rule the
world! (<- mahahahwaaa = evil laugh)
Yawn.
But,
the stoic bad guy's twist is he is a member of some creepy ritual-loving
Masonic-like group of wealthy and powerful citizens of London.
We
joined in as Holmes has already hunted this man and is netting
him. But this Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong) has diabolical (comic
book style rule-the-world) plans that even a proper hanging shant
derail.
And
as film plots would have it, the only woman who ever raised Holmes
brow, Ms. Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams), is some how involved with
the mad man…
Those
who know the Sir Conan Doyle character are well aware of the lass
and her ways of toying with Holmes. Ritchie seems to weild her
because she is a needed chemical in the Hollywood equation.
Anyway...The
duos, and the forced love interest, follow Blackwood through a
series of dark – black magic hued - affairs in a Whitechapel-esque
London.
Now
know, Holmes must stop Blackwood before he kills dozens of rich
Parliament men and then, somehow, uses the left over MacRiches
to get back the Colonies (U.S.A. circa 1870s) for England and
himself.
Um,yeah.
Perhaps the villain is dipping into the opium dens ‘tween
devilish deeds?
The good news is Sherlock is a delight to watch deduce, and Watson
is wittier and less baffled than we are used to. McAdams is fine
– but used a bit too much for a Sherlock story.
The
others behind the scenes like Sarah Greenwood in Production Design,
and Jenny Beavan’s clothing designs, along with Philippe
Rousselot’s exquisite cinematography delight.
Ritchie edits in his usual style; kinetic and too many slow-mo
bits. Here his dance style just sillies up Sherlock frankly.
The
film also has what I call, a double ending. The film’s biggest
action scene is matched to ever crescendo-ing music. There’s
a climax in-the-sky as a camera pushes away after a saw-it-coming-two-scenes-back
good bye set up. The finale. You begin to rise from your seat
to beat the rushes. But suddenly, the film goes on.
Luckily,
here, unlike Artificial
Intelligence say, this afterbirth ties up the story a
little neater – and leaves a big huge hint to a sequel should
box office warrant.
I’d
say you may have to see this. It’s Downey Jr. as Sherlock
and Law as Watson – how could you resist? Bob gets better
looking with every crease that paints his face. Law is barely
legal to gaze upon. But I do hope they make a sequel, and this
time create a real wing ding of a story - you know make the single
most famous fictional character get a real case worthy of that
encyclopedic brain.
Snack
recommendation: Honey and scrambled egg on crumpets while
you watch a rented version
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