Sherlock Holmes is a pop culture
icon. Ever since the character’s
original run at the hands of master storyteller Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a fervent
following has obsessed on him through the decades. Thus, like Batman, he has transcended his
original medium and depiction, and has been adapted or reinterpreted in a numerous
variety of ways across different media.
I’ve loved Sherlock Holmes ever
since I picked up my first Sherlock
Holmes volume (I started in the middle of the chronology; it was Return of Sherlock Holmes) as a
kid. Since then, not only did I love the
original literature (I have every volume in my library/collection) written by
Doyle, but also have sought anything that has Sherlock Holmes on it – screen
adaptations, non-canon stories written by other authors, reinventions, etc. Though I didn’t get to like all of them, Sherlock
Holmes possesses an inherent charm that made me appreciate most non-Doyle interpretations
of the character, even the outlandish ones like The Asylum’s Sherlock Holmes.
Mr. Holmes is simply another reinterpretation of the famed fictional
detective – and an endearing one at that.
Set in 1947, the movie features a long-retired, senile 93-year-old
Sherlock Holmes (as expected, it’s another great performance from Sir Ian
McKellen) as he struggles to remember the details of his last case – a case
that he considers so great a failure that it had compelled him to completely abandon
the life of a detective. He desperately
wants to recall what it was all about so that he might personally write its complete,
actual account before he dies.
Meanwhile, he develops a paternal fondness for Roger (Milo Parker), his
housekeeper’s bright son, and shares his fascination of bees with him and
engages him in intellectual discussions.
As Roger spends more time with the brilliant Holmes, he grows more and
more dissatisfied with his proletariat life and tension develops between him
and his poorly-educated mother (Laura Linney).
This isn’t the first time I
encountered a depiction of Sherlock Holmes in an advance elderly age (in a ludicrous
anniversary issue of Detective Comics,
Batman teamed-up with a 130-year-old Sherlock Holmes. I kid you not!), but it’s probably the most
satisfyingly exploration of such concept.
Mr. Holmes doesn’t have the
thrills of the traditional Watsonian narrative, nor does it have the flair, fun,
and action of modern reinventions like Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes movies or BBC’s Sherlock
TV series. It does however remains a
unique and fascinating approach on the mythology that every professing Sherlock
Holmes fan needs to see. It explores a feeble,
deteriorating Sherlock Holmes who has lost most of the potency of his much celebrated,
incredible mental powers, and, at that point of his life, has grown reflective
and sentimental, fully recognizing the superior worth of human companionship and
kindness over cold logic.
Mr. Holmes isn’t the typical Sherlock Holmes crime drama. Those who expect it to be such are going to
be disappointed. It instead delivers a heartfelt,
philosophical meditation on the value of human connections, and cleverly uses Sherlock
Holmes – who has made the reputation of someone that prefers to detach himself
from human emotions and bond, which he thinks can hinder him in functioning as
a cold analytical machine – to serve as its character study. In this context, this Sherlock Holmes movie
proves to be a beautiful and pleasing one.
Miscellaneous musings:
- Even if the movie is all about Holmes embracing his humanity (uh, SPOILERS?), I still felt that the last part where he conducts a Japanese spiritual practice, something he picked up from his recent visit to Hiroshima, was something too out-of-character.
- It was easy to deduce (SPOILERS, by the way) that the bees had nothing to do with the stings on Roger and the ensuing allergic reactions. It was shown earlier in the film that he was stung by a bee with no ill effects manifesting. And there was some subtle but evident foreshadowing beforehand about the wasps being the real villains.
- Sir Ian McKellen makes a great Sherlock Holmes. In a way, I wish the whole movie turned out to be about an old Sherlock Holmes actually working on his last case. So I totally adored the flashbacks of Holmes’ last case. They were very compelling sequences. Sir Ian really rocked as an elderly but still functioning Sherlock Holmes.
- That all said, I want nothing more but for Christmas to come already so that we can finally see Sherlock’s first special. Sorry, Sir Ian, but Benedict Cumberbatch is simply the definitive Sherlock Holmes right now.
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