Sherlock Holmes
Make no mistake- this isn’t your grandfather’s Sherlock Holmes. Hell, it’s not even the Sherlock Holmes I watched a few years ago in Hammer’s “The Hounds of the Baskervilles,” with Peter Cushing so brilliantly playing the Scotland Yard sleuth. In Guy Ritchie’s update, the deductive reason is still there, but this one is as much a man of action as he is a man of reason.
That alone makes Robert Downey Jr. the best choice for a new version of the supersleuth. Ritchie’s Holmes is more devil-make-hare, less proper, and more in tune with the criminal element that Cushing’s was. We see him in a down-and-dirty boxing match that probably skirts the law, and we accept it because of the expectations Downey and Ritchie have set up. We also see him using some pretty wicked martial arts when such skills are needed, which is apparently more in line with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s vision of the character than previous versions would have us think.
The story is standard turn-of-the-century detective drama, as a mysterious practitioner by the name of Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong) has found a way to cheat death that appears, to the naked eye, to be the work of a supernatural being. But Holmes knows better, and the further down the rabbit hole he goes, the closer he seems to get to the real answers, unless his weak spot for con artist Irene Adler (a yummy Rachel McAdams) gets the best of him.
Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about Dr. Watson, Holmes’ trusted ally. In an inspired bit of plotting, writers Michael Robert Johnson, Anthony Peckham and Simon Kinberg (working from a story by Lionel Wigram) have taken the modern buddy pic convention of “a man three days to retirement” and turn it on its’ ear, to where Watson is a week from being engaged to lovely socialite Mary Morstan (Kelly Reilly) and is moving out of the house he and Holmes have been sharing. But the deeper Holmes gets into this case, the harder it is for Watson to stay on the sidelines.
That Ritchie saw fit to cast Jude Law as the straight man to Downey’s more rebellious Holmes is, well, about as perfect as having Downey in the lead. These two work beautifully together, filling this iconic pairing with the ease and skill of an actor whose lived with a character so long they wear the persona like a second skin. They’re a match made in buddy movie heaven. Sure, Ritchie could’ve made the movie a tad shorter (did it really need to be over two hours?), but the director of “Snatch,” “Rock-N-Rolla,” and “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” has a good handle of the material (especially in his use of modern conventions to take us into Holmes’ thought process), and some terrific actors to bring it to life. Ten years ago, this combination of talent (and action producer Joel Silver) would’ve seemed strange and improbable. Now, doesn’t it seem like the combination the material’s been waiting for? I’ll let you deduct that for yourself.
