Sherlock Holmes
From FilmFile
Taglines:
- Nothing Escapes Him
- Crime Will Pay
- Dangerously Alluring
- Depraved Adversary
- Holmes for the Holiday.
- Nothing escapes them.
Contents |
Synopsis
Detective Sherlock Holmes and his stalwart partner Watson engage in a battle of wits and brawn with a nemesis whose plot is a threat to all of England.
Review
Guy Ritchie was, to a lot of people, quite a strange choice of director to be handling a film based upon the adventures of Conan Doyle's famous detective. To me, however, he seemed a perfect fit. Ignoring, for a moment, the previous screen incarnations of Holmes, and instead looking at the source materials, we have books set in the grimy world of Victorian England, with a detective who is untidy, a tad uncouth, and a skilled fighter in various styles from around the world. Whilst the books never go into detail about any action, it is there and explained away with a, "were it not for Holmes' skills at..." comment from Watson (the narrator of most of the books). Holmes was also quite an abuser of narcotics, a characterism that many of Ritchie's anti-heroes of the past have held.
Fair enough, this version of Holmes would never be as straight-laced and 'proper' as the distinguished gentleman we have seen in the past, but then again that deerstalker wearing, middle aged gent didn't really match the depiction of the detective of the books much anyway.
What the sceptics were not expecting, however, was for the end result to prove that Ritchie is much more than a 'mockney gangster' film-maker, and in Sherlock Holmes he has finally found a way to entice his most ardent detractors.
The villain of the piece is a new creation, Lord Blackwood, and is played more than ably by Ritchie favourite Marc Strong. Seemingly posessing supernaturla powers, Blackwood is captured and hung, but returns from the grave to have his revenge upon the society that shunned him. Can Holmes uncover the master-plot before it is to late, and why is his old flame, Adler, suddenly back on the scene.
The look and style, along with the musical score, all set the mood perfectly, and a London deep into the industrial revolution is portrayed in all its grimy beauty. For the first time in many years we have a depiction of Old London Town that doesn't look like Prague, and it is filled with all manner of characters from the wealthy Lords, to the hired muscle. However it is the casting of Jude Law as Watson, and Robert Downey Jr as Holmes, that is the sweet icing upon the cake here, and their banter, charm, and on-screen chemistry makes every moment of the film an absolute pleasure to watch.
Downey Jr manages to pull off an accent that seems more authentic than Law's own English accent, and plays the messy detective brilliantly. Law plays an occasionally frustrated, but always loyal, companion to Holmes, and both actors really make you believe that there is a long term camaderie in place here. Wit and charm sparkle off the exchanges of dialogue between them, disguising some exposition amongst the banter so you keep up with the story easily. Holmes' voice-over moments describing the thought process or plan of action ahead, accompanied with Ritchie's trademark slow motion or flash frame trickery, fill in the gaps of the story.
The story itself is well developed, and if you were to take out any action you would still have a cracking mystery yarn with a strong plot-line. The action is not necessary, and nor is it as abundant as the detractors were expecting. It seems that all those who expected an action-fest from the director have not actually seen any of his past films, otherwise they would see that he likes to weave detailed layers on top of each other before unravelling it all towards the end, and all with only small moments of action.
So, a director who likes a good yarn, where the clues are all set up and structured well, who only uses action in a minimalised capacity, and who likes his heores and villains to be ground in reality, and use dialogue to progress the story... who said he was the wrong man for the job again?
Would you like some bacon to go with the egg on your face?
Trivia
- Colin Farrell was in talks to play Watson before Jude Law was cast.
- The first Sherlock Holmes film to reach U.S. movie theaters in over twenty years, since the 1988 comedy Without a Clue (1988) with Michael Caine as Reginald Kincaid/"Sherlock Holmes".
- Robert Maillet accidentally knocked out Robert Downey Jr. while filming a fight scene.
- Robert Downey Jr. read many Sherlock Holmes stories and watched "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (1984) by Granada Television (starring Jeremy Brett) in order to learn more about the character.
- The set for Sherlock Holmes's home in this film was previously used as Sirius Black's home in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007).
- Guy Ritchie's first film to be rated 12A in his native country U.K.
- Watson's line to Holmes, "You know that what you're drinking is for eye surgery," is an obscure reference to Holmes's cocaine usage. At the time, cocaine was used as a topical anesthetic for eye surgery. In the stories, Holmes injects cocaine.
- The first scene in Baker Street is a nod to Granada Television's "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (1984) series, starring Jeremy Brett. In the scene, the camera focuses on a "Baker Street" street sign, then tracks backward down the street and over a clopping horse pulling a carriage. This same camera shot and angle - with the overhead tracking shot over a horse and carriage - was used to reveal Baker Street in the opening credits sequence of the Granada TV series.
- At the end of the film, Mary asks Watson if she could read his journals of his adventures with Sherlock Holmes. Of the 60 Doyle penned stories of Sherlock Holmes, all but four have Watson serving as the narrator.
- Although Irene Adler plays a large role in the movie, she only appears in one Sir Arthur Conan Doyle story, "A Scandal in Bohemia", briefly referenced in the movie.
- The story "His Last Bow" mentions that Holmes practiced shooting his pistol by putting VR (Victoria Regina) on his wall with bullet holes. In the movie, Holmes shoots VR in the wall in his room with a gun.
- Rachel McAdams, Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr. reportedly did most of their own stunts.
- Before the scene where Sherlock Holmes reenacts the black magic ceremony, we see a brief shot of an Inn called The Punch Bowl. The Punch Bowl is the name of Guy Ritchie's pub in Mayfair, London.
- The fight at the shipyard is inspired by the first steel-hulled, steam-powered ocean liner built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel a few years prior to the setting of the film. The actual ship was launched badly and sank after an explosion on its maiden voyage.
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