Review - Sherlock Holmes

After “Young Sherlock Holmes” where we followed the detective's adventures as a young boy, and “Basil The Great Mouse Detective” where we followed his adventures as a mouse, Sherlock Holmes gets another reinvention as a action film hero in this uneven romp from director Guy Ritchie. Robert Downey Jnr plays the eponymous London detective, with Jude Law taking sidekick duties as Dr Watson. The two are drawn into a strange plot involving the mysterious Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong,) a villain previously hung for murder who appears to have come back from the dead and is embarking on a devious plot that is bad news for the citizens of London.

The plot is pretty flimsy and and the three screenwriters responsible seem to realise this as they pay minimal attention to the story and concentrate more on the lead characters. Robert Downey Jnr does a good job as Sherlock Holmes, an eccentric genius who's very handy with his fists in this interpretation. Downey brings across the detective's two sides, the buffoonish clown and the intelligent sleuth, very well and is a pleasure to watch on the screen. Jude Law has a drier role as Dr Watson but he brings a down to earth quality that helps anchor the film in reality. Mark Strong makes a menacing if one note villain but he's sadly given too little screen time to make much of an impact. The pretty Rachel McAdams makes a forgettable appearance as a sort of love interest to Sherlock Holmes. Her character is a bit of a mess, she is not in the film long enough to get any romantic frisson going between herself and Holmes, and sadly McAdams acting is sub-par and fails to bring across any emotions or motives. She appears to be shoehorned into the film to offset the “Boys Own” feeling the majority of the film has.

Director Guy Ritchie does a solid job of controlling the chaos on screen. He handles the action scenes fairly well, especially the all action finale which includes a well done fight on a partially built Tower Bridge. Although the films' marketing pitches it as a action film there's more talking than fighting. Unfortunately the film falls a little flat when there's no action on screen, the pacing is uneven and some of the scenes can drag. Thankfully the main meat of Sherlock Holmes, the sleuthing, is handled well and it's entertaining to see Holmes piece together the clues. There's also some fun scenes where Holmes will play out in his mind how he's going to take out a bad guy (aiming for weak spots, predicting his moves.) We see these thoughts Holmes is playing out in his mind, and then we see it again as Holmes actually carries out his plan.

The cinematography and set design is excellent, with Victorian London brought vividly to life. There's also a good soundtrack by Hans Zimmer. Overall Sherlock Holmes is a decent effort at breathing new life into the detective although the uneven pacing and the villain not getting enough time to make a strong opponent to Holmes does let things down.