Z/Web

Director: Guy Ritchie

I was intrigued by this, but cautious as the trailers gave no hint as to the story, and I came away from it with mixed feelings. It’s not a great film, but it’s good enough, I suppose. I liked many things about it. The casting is fine, though this “new” Sherlock Holmes is more modern and flawed (he’s a drunken slob much of the time, something I found distasteful). I loved the humor, and the stylish direction of Ritchie definitely added a fun quirky touch. For instance, the film would occasionally double back to reveal more information about a previous scene. Like in one sequence, we saw a bum accost someone and later there’s a speeded up sequence where we see Holmes changing into a disguise and we realize that he was that begger. That is very cool. Another technique was Holmes’ thinking about what he was going to do with clipped previews showing his intention, and then the “real life” view of what he actually did (exactly what he planned). Overall, I liked this style a lot: that surprised me as it’s a modern technique and not fitting with Victorian-era Holmes, but it worked. What didn’t work for me was the overly-convoluted — and boring — plot. Basically we begin with Holmes catching a bad guy just before he kills a woman, and that bad guy’s eventually hanging. But then the bad guy supposedly was into dark occult magic and rose from the dead and we learn he was part of some secret society out to rule to world. Yeah, really cutting edge stuff. A guess the trio of screenwriters were reading too much Dan Brown. What follows after that is a complicated mess of bizarre events, murders, and mayhem, with Holmes and Watson trying to figure out what’s going on. We throw into that a mysterious and beautiful woman, Holmes’ long-time love interest who’s an international jewelry thief and her questionable motivations and apparent control by a third party, and the strange dynamic between Holmes and Watson, where Sherlock is attempting to sabotage his friend’s impending nuptials. What all this means is non-stop action, either in physical battles, mysterious happenings, or hilarious dialogue, but it’s all so convoluted and fast-paced that there’s no time for genuine emotions or real character development. Nothing makes much sense until the end, and even then, it’s questionable. The film also ends on an obvious sequel-is-coming note, a practice I find annoying. The bottom line is that this film is fun, it’s entertaining, it’s somewhat intelligent in terms of dialogue, but there’s just not much of a mystery for Holmes to investigate. It’s more physical action than mental genius, and the plot is more suited for a James Bond film than a Sherlock Holmes story. There are also many aspects of character that are so loosely defined I found them confusing: the back story between Holmes and the female thief are only hinted at, and I was never quite comfortable with the whole Holmes-Watson relationship (I couldn’t tell if Watson hated Holmes or adored him, or both). I suppose the real bottom line is that I adored Morton Downy Jr. in the title role — genius as usual — but I didn’t really like the Sherlock Holmes character in this film. Combined with the crazy plot, I have to give a big shrug at the whole mess. Enjoy it for the fun and stylistic filmmaking, but don’t expect an intriguing mystery.