When you think of Sherlock Holmes you would most likely conjure up visions of gargantuan pipes, deerstalkers and the super detective striding around a musty drawing room while making staggeringly accurate accusations based on the most convoluted of details. However, thanks to some modern interpretations of the character, the stuffy look of a Basil Rathbone or a Peter Cushing is decidedly a thing of the past with the sight of Benedict Cumberbatch’s post modern version dashing around Steven Moffat series for the BBC. However, there was an even more radical version that hit cinemas a year before.
Guy Ritchie has never been the most sedate and subtle of filmmakers, choosing to assault his audiences with zippy editing, rapid fire plots and vast arrays of eccentric characters; but the king of mockey crime epics and natty plaid suits pulled out all the stops when given his largest budget yet to reimagine the world’s greatest detective and his surroundings into something akin to a Victorian Lethal Weapon.
Joining our leads with a case already in progress, we find massively eccentric, London based detective Sherlock Holmes and his companion, Dr. John Watson leap into action to thwart the murderous spree of one Lord Henry Blackwood, who has been sacrificing young women in the name of some ungodly cult and is promptly sent to the gallows for his crimes. However, despite being hanged, the rumours of his supernatural abilities lead to sightings of the man having returned from the dead.
However, since Blackwood’s arrest, Holmes and Watson have been going through some rough patches in their already tempestuous and complicated relationship. You see, Holmes isn’t exactly the easiest person to get along with as his gargantuan intelligence means that his ability to negotiate social situations is horribly erratic at the best of times. His behaviour has gotten even worse since Watson has gotten engaged to Mary Morstan and is planning to move out of 221B Baker Street – the address the two crime fighters have shared up until that point.
However, when the mystery of Blackwood starts to include murder, Holmes and Watson have to tenuously get the band back together to get to the bottom of this latest puzzle and try to keep the master sleuth focused, especially since his old flame and former adversary, Irene Adler, has resurfaced with mischief on her mind and a shadowy employer to satisfy.
Is Blackwood truly in league with the world of the paranormal? Who is Adler’s secret employer? And, most importantly of all, can Holmes go three days without testing yet more sedatives on his dog, Gladstone?
It seems that the game is well and truly afoot.
I can imagine that those more used to seeing the legendary detective pick apart various wrongdoers solely using his staggering IQ may initially be quite horrified at Richie’s version of Holmes becoming a brawling, erratic, deranged, over stimulated, adventurer; but if you take a closer look at the original stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, Holmes always had those aspects in him from the start.
Of course, what with Guy Ritchie being Guy Ritchie, those aspects have been well and truly exaggerated to fit into the parameters of a blown up, mega budget, blockbuster and if anyone was perfect to play such a role, it was certainly Robert Downey Jr. At that time, comeback kid RDJ had already cornered the market on playing massively egotistical brainboxes whose immense brain power leaves them utterly incapable (and unwilling) of maintaining normal social interactions thanks to his work as Iron Man in the MCU. However, compared to Downey’s maniacal Holmes, the notoriously bratty Tony Stark feels as measured and controlled as Steve friggin’ Roger’s as the actor dives into his bag of tricks to create a Holmes that’s barely a functioning human being. Thankfully, asxwecall know, RDJ seems unnaturally blessed with the talent to make vastly self-obsessed assholes innately and instantly lovable and paired with the insane chemistry he has with Jude Law’s eyeball rolling straight man. However, this version of Watson isn’t the bumbling sidekick who is constantly agog at his partner’s deductions; no he’s an ex-military man with a gambling problem who seems to be one of the only men alive who is able to even remotely tolerate Holmes’ frenzied intricacies and as a result, this period approach for a raucous, buddy comedy, action film proves to be endearingly thrilling.
As not to be outdone by his leads, Ritchie makes sure that everyone knows he’s calling the shots by slamming his usual, frenetic style into overdrive with so many visual bells and whistles, it would probably even make Sam Raimi’s head spin as he smashes about the face with freeze frames, slo-mo, inner monologues, flash backs, flash forwards and everything inbetween and all the while creating a vision of the 1890s that’s grittily fantastical with ne’er do wells and rapscallions lurking within every alleyway.
However, there’s a downside to all this brazen flashiness and that’s anyone who isn’t part of the Downey Jr./ Law/Ritchie juggernaut is pretty much bowled out of the way by the sheer charismatic mass of the main double act and the director’s style. Both Rachel McAdams’ Adler and Mark Strong’s Blackwood are of interest, but are seldom interesting with the latter in particular feeling like he’s only filling in for arch enemy Professor Moriarty while he’s busy being set up for the sequel. Everything else is simply lost in the noise and despite the fact that we’re watching a Sherlock Holmes film that’s fairly savvy, the movie is seldom genuinely clever, relying a little too much on flashy revelations after the case has finished that leaves ample room for some admittedly inventive action sequences.
Still, when you have a trifecta such as this, it’s tough to cling too much on any hang ups and you’re best served just emulating Jude Law and simply buckling in and going with the hyperactive flow as director and star jostle each other over how much scenery they can either blow up or chew.
Sherlock purists may look on aghast as Ritchie’s boom-fest takes their beloved detective into action movie territory, but as a balls-to-the-wall, all-action adaptation of a beloved character, this incarnation brings the fun Holmes.
Exemplary, my dear Watson.
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