Sherlock Holmes (2009)
As any kid, I grew up idolizing heroes. But unlike a lot of girls my age who liked ponies and fairies and Barbie dolls, my idols and heroes were ones Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson.
Detective Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) and his stalwart partner Watson (Jude Law) engage in a battle of wits and brawn with a nemesis whose plot is a threat to all of England.
Right, now I used a generic summary here from IMDB because for those who know (and for those who don’t) Sherlock Holmes is not just one story, it is a huge anthology of them. This film merely took aspects of a few of the stories and brought them all together in a beautiful, hilarious and very accurately adapted version for the screen.
Now, as previously mentioned I grew up with Sherlock Holmes. As a 4-year-old child I knew the entire series of the Russian Sherlock Holmes (the main actor was knighted by the Queen as the best Sherlock Holmes at one point, so the quality is unquestionable), I cried when Sherlock died, rejoiced when he returned, tried to solve crimes, learned to fear anyone vaguely suspicious and just overall lived the dream. He was my favourite action hero, and still holds part of my heart. The theme music still makes me smile at the memories of sitting in front of the TV screaming for Sherlock to come back.
So you can understand why I was skeptical in seeing this version when I first heard about it. Don’t get me wrong, I love Guy Ritchie’s work (Snatch is one of the most brilliant films I have ever seen) but the idea of him messing around with a hero who I had loved from such a young age made me a little uncomfortable. Eventually, though, I got over my fear and went to see the film in cinemas on the second day of its NZ release. I was not disappointed.
The film is beautifully made, let me just start with that. It is a period piece, so it’s set at the time that the books were written, and the London that Ritchie paints is accurate to how it is described by both Doyle and Dickens: it’s dirty and smelly and unforgiving. Holmes and Watson are portrayed just as they should be: brothers in bond not blood. The dialogue is hilarious and very witty. Nothing is over acted and the plot line makes perfect sense.
Done. Sold. Review over.
Just kidding. I could actually go on about this movie for longer than my self-imposed word limit allows, but I tend to go completely off track when I do that so I will try to stick with the basics. The set and costuming is stunning. A lot of the time when people imagine Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson they don’t realize that although they are truly brilliant, they’re also real men. They’re dirty and tired and have their vices (which are all covered in the film, thankfully) and get into fights both physical and mental, and don’t always come out clean. Yes, like any Hollywood blockbuster (and this most certainly is one) there are tons of errors continuity-wise, but when the guys get injured, they STAY. INJURED.
The music is most definitely worth a mention. It’s, in a word, amazing. But are we at all surprised, considering Hans Zimmer wrote it? I’ve been finding more and more films lately which Zimmer has scored and I’m beginning to realize that if I ever were to meet the man in real life I might just go blind from his brilliance. The music is, of course, a score that underlies the entire film and is barely present unless you specifically look for it. But it is also a perfect reflection of the world that Ritchie created on screen; it’s brutal and humorous, upbeat and melancholy… it’s perfect. As Zimmer always is.
Finally I’ll spend a paragraph gushing about the script and the acting. I’m a huge fan of both Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, so it’s not surprise that I loved them in this. They are both so perfect for their roles that it’s impossible to be unmoved by their performances. And unlike some films which only get reviewed by me (as in, have a higher rating than 5/10) because they scrape by on the skin of their teeth due to their amazing actors and nothing more, Sherlock Holmes has a fantastic script to back up the already mentioned fantastic art direction and music. It’s quick and clever and easy to follow and just absolutely captivating in every way that a script can be.
If you can’t tell, I adore the film. So it shouldn’t be a shock to see 8.5/10 as its rating, now, should it? I recommend this film to everyone and anyone. It’s both a film for men (because it’s burly and actiony rar!) and for women (because it has freaking Jude Law in it, people) and just an overall entertaining and fun watch. Definitely a blockbuster, expect many a cliche, but those are barely noticeable when backed by the rest of the production which is, in a word, sublime.
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