Sherlock Holmes (I've Finally Seen It!)

This will be a mini-review. I'm tired.
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There’s nothing wrong with Sherlock Holmes on a surface level. It looks good, the performances are enjoyable, and Hans Zimmer once again delivers a one-of-a-kind and energetic score that buzzes along like a demented accordionist. My disagreements more or less begin and end with the screenwriters and director Guy Ritchie. They have no interest in getting to know their version of Sherlock Holmes better, but instead they stop at the fact that he’s smart and can break a guy’s bones. All of my enjoyment came from the likes of Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, and were Ritchie left to his own devices he would have created a film devoid of humanity.

Ritchie is not the guy to hire to start a mainstream film franchise. His past films have often been incredibly violent and about gangsters and thieves. Give him a PG-13 film to direct and he’ll stylize it all he can. I found the violence in Sherlock Holmes to be surprisingly brutal for what is supposed to be a more family-friendly project. It’s not awful, but it is far more bone-crunching than most movies of its ilk, and the slow motion shots didn’t exactly sit well with me. One of the first opinions I heard on this film came back on Christmas from a middle-aged suburban mom type. She said it was “Like, SO good!” and was impressed with how “clean” she said it was. Imagine my surprise when I find most of the hand-to-hand combat to be Gangs of New York-lite.

If the film toned down on the use of CGI I would have been less detached. Effects used to expand the environments are effective, but cartoonish objects ricocheting around in the midst of a shoehorned-in action scene are less so. Sherlock Holmes is not so much a detective as an action hero in this re-imagining, and that’s to be expected. What I wish I saw was more focus on Holmes’ deductive process. We are given his epiphanies and conclusions, but we need to be clued in on the ending as the film goes on. We can’t merely rely on Holmes’ speeches of “this is the truth, and this is why!”, but instead the audience needs to be able to participate. That’s at least what I ask for.

When you go to watch a film about famous fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, you want to watch a mystery film. This is an action film, and while I found Downey Jr. a joy to watch as always, there was something about the artificiality of the proceedings that did not register. There could be a very good film with these characters, and maybe the Dark Knight of Sherlock Holmes films is right around the corner, but with Ritchie at the helm I find that a difficult prospect to buy.

Rating: (out of 4)