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| Tuesday, December 22, 2009 02:15 PM |
| On the Viewer - Sherlock Holmes |
 by Fëanor |
So far I think I've been lucky enough to avoid seeing a bad Guy Ritchie film (although I hear tell there are quite a few of them), and Sherlock Holmes continues my streak. It's a ridiculously fun period/action/mystery/comedy/buddy film which stars Robert Downey Jr. as the famous detective and Jude Law as his sidekick Watson. Rachel McAdams plays Holmes' love interest and sometime nemesis, the criminal mastermind Irene Adler. Kelly Reilly is Watson's fiance and Holmes' rival for Watson's affections. The main villain of the tale is the mysterious and mystical Lord Blackwood, played by Mark Strong, who has just the right chiseled face and deep, dark voice to play Blackwood's evil, egomaniacal magician/aristocrat.
The movie's Holmes is more fond of bare-knuckle boxing than the one you might be used to, and surprisingly handy in a physical fight; with scientific precision, he works out all his opponent's weak points, predicting and parrying each of his enemy's movements, and then carries out his plan to the letter, even calculating how long it will take for his victim to recover from the attack. Besides being physically adept, this Holmes is also obviously quite brilliant at deducing underlying truths from a series of outward details, but he's not quite as smart as he thinks he is. Sometimes he's wrong, and sometimes he's outwitted. The movie's Watson is a little cleverer than the one you might be used to, and can even give Holmes a run for his money in the deduction department sometimes. One of the more interesting and amusing subplots has to do with how possessive Holmes is of Watson, and how jealous he is of the doctor's time, and of the doctor's fiance. There's the suggestion of a romantic tinge to the relationship between the two men, although it's only a suggestion. Holmes seems just as obsessed with Adler as he is with Watson. Adler, for her part, is also obsessed with Holmes. She gets in trouble and has to be saved by Holmes a couple of times, but she also tricks and outsmarts Holmes, and even has to save him once or twice.
The plot is just slightly ridiculous, and is about a madman who claims to be a dark wizard. He seems to die near the beginning of the film, but then comes back from the grave and begins to enact a plan to overthrow England (after that, the world! Natch). Besides Blackwood, Holmes also finds himself contending with an incredibly large hired thug; a secret society; a mass murder plot; the first ever remote-activated chemical weapon; black magic; the entire British police force; his friend Watson's attempts to extricate himself from life with the mad detective at 221B Baker Street; his old enemy and old flame Irene Adler resurfacing; and even Moriarty himself, who dabbles in the background of the proceedings. It's a fast-paced and rather complex story, with lots of chases, fights, science, explosions, examinations, experiments, and deductions. It takes the classic tales of England's great detective in a more wry, knowing, self-aware, modern, Hollywood-ish direction than some might be comfortable with, but through it all, I think it remains true to the spirit of the source material. Anyway, as a long-time fan of Holmes' exploits, I found the film incredibly entertaining. The ending is eminently satisfying, but also wide open for a sequel. I look forward to it. |
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