Sherlock Holmes is brought back to the big screen but can Guy Ritchie deliver the goods?
Robert Downey Jr. has finally found his Captain Jack Sparrow and Guy Ritchie has directed his best film, all from a movie I went into not really knowing what to expect.
Sherlock Holmes looked to be a fun romp, a typical Christmas blockbuster that would entertain me, but nothing more.
Downey’s performance here reminds me of what Johnny Depp accomplished with his lead role in the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy. Holmes is not completely over the top, but Downey takes this legendary character and turns him into his own unique adaptation. He is eccentric, observant and, at times, extremely introverted, yet through the entire movie he was the one constant thing that kept me glued to the screen.
Sherlock Holmes is not the stoic detective many believe him to be. In the novels, he is known to utilize illegal drugs, including morphine and cocaine, when investigating cases. He appears to be a slob, living in quarters strung with papers and manuscripts, seeming to live in a state of chaos. He is infatuated with a woman named Irene Adler, the only woman to have ever impressed him. Holmes also never says “Elementary my dear Watson,” which is just as well since he never said it in the stories either. Oh, and in The Sign of Four, it is noted that Holmes is a formidable bare-knuckle fighter and was trained as a boxer.
Guy Ritchie takes all of the above information and strings it throughout his Sherlock Holmes tale and it is clear to me that, while it may seem strange on the surface, most of what is shown in the film is distinctly Sherlock Holmes, as written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The movie might also find critics who don’t like the supernatural aspects of the case Holmes is working, but the supernatural has also been explored in the stories, specifically in Hound of the Baskervilles.
At its heart, Sherlock Holmes is an old fashioned detective story. I was taken aback when the first scenes in the movie have Holmes stopping a ritualistic murder and arresting the serial killer. When the killer is unmasked, I had an instant vision of Scooby Doo that almost killed the movie for me before it ever got started, but thankfully Downey Jr.’s performance saved it and the rest of the movie picked up.
Dr. Watson, a man who loves his partner and will do anything for him, but needs to break away and find his own place in the world. It is not an origin story and begins after the two have had numerous cases together. This helps the movie find its footing and not get bogged down in the past. It doesn’t matter what kind of cases the two have worked on before because they bring us into their world, almost like an old married couple.
There is also a cliffhanger that proves this is might become a franchise to rival Downey’s Iron Man, as classic Sherlock Holmes adversary Moriarty is always lurking in the background of the film.
Ritchie paints a canvas that is pure, classic Britain but gives the film the pacing and urgency of something much more now. His use of images and symbolism is always on hand, such as a black bird that arrives whenever death approaches. He has learned from his past experiments and this is the film where the director has finally come into his own. The trailers may not be the best example, but this is the perfect Sherlock Holmes film.
