Sherlock Holmes
Where to start with this film? Well to cheat slightly let's plagiarise the synopsis from IMDB, just to be brief and to the point;
"After finally catching serial killer and occult sorcerer Lord Blackwood, legendary sleuth Sherlock Holmes and his assistant Dr. Watson can close yet another successful case. But when Blackwood mysteriously returns from the grave and resumes his killing spree, Holmes must take up the hunt once again. Contending with his partner's new fiancée and the dimwitted head of Scotland Yard, the dauntless detective must unravel the clues that will lead him into a twisted web of murder, deceit, and black magic and the deadly embrace of temptress Irene Adler."
Apologies for nicking the synopsis, but the important points to consider, we believe, is the way that the legendary characters are bought to the big screen with this 2009 Guy Ritchie movie. Yes, of course the story is important, there's not much film without a plot, but it is fairly well known that the story is going to be centred around Holmes facing certain adversaries, so we can gloss over that for the moment.
It is obvious that when retelling a story or classic characters are portrayed in a film, that comparisons will be drawn. We will always compare the different versions; is Basil Rathbone superior to Benedict Cumberbatch? Does Jeremy Brett capture the character better than Robert Downey Jr.? There's no right or wrong answer, it's purely a matter of taste. How Downey Jr. compares to Conan Doyle's original Holmes is not for us to debate here, this is down to the fact that nobody at TNiFN Towers has actually read the books! Although they have been sat on the book shelves gathering dust for many a year.
Anyway, to the film. Guy Ritchie directs this 128 minute movie, which regales us with the plot as shown above. Robert Downey Jr. puts in a marvelous display as the cunning detective genius that is Sherlock Holmes, ably assisted by Jude Law as Dr. Watson. The Law and Downey Jr. pairing are quite splendid as Holmes and Watson. They clearly bounce off of each other as the dependable duo. Watson down to earth and always ready to defend Holmes when his off the wall methodology leads him into a tight corner. The other major players from the original stories are also in evidence; Inspector Lestrade who is described as a "sallow, rat-faced and dark-eyed fellow" in the original Conan-Doyle book; A Study in Scarlet, is played superbly by Eddie Marsan. Irene Adler, who first appeared in the short story "A Scandal in Bohemia" is portrayed here by the ever-so lovely Rachel McAdams, (The Notebook and The Vow).
What really hits the mark also with this adaptation is the way that the filmmakers have recreated in all it's glory, Victorian London complete with Tower Bridge still under construction. The special effects are fantastic and compliment the live action superbly. Guy Ritchie adopts several styles to portray the action, by which we mean, for instance; there is some good use of slow motion sections with narration where Holmes describes how he will get out of a tricky situation before proceeding to do so in real-time. Also there are some good use of flashbacks along with some innovative camera work to totally immerse the viewer in the action.
All in all the first outing for Robert Downey Jr. as the astute mental logician Holmes is top notch. He ticks all the boxes as the master of deduction and the close characters around him ably support him perfectly. There's a lot of action and a lot of information set before you, so you need to keep your wits about you not to miss some salient information, but it keeps you enthralled and watching right until the end.
Looking forward to watching the next installment, which will be coming to TNiFN Towers in the coming weeks.
As to the scoring, well it is not a romantic comedy, so the female contingent will mark it down for that. Also, it didn't keep everyone enthralled judging by the heavy eyes and gently snores emanating from some certain parties in front of the screen! However, Sherlock Holmes comes out fairly well with;
TNiFN Rating 73%
IMDB Link
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