Mr Holmes (15)
Directed by Bill Condon.
Starring Ian McKellen, Laura Linney, Milo Parker, Hiroyuki Sanada, Roger Allam and Hattie Morahan. 103 mins
Breaking with the contemporary fad for making Sherlock stories that are exciting and vibrant, Mr Holmes gives us a Sherlock story that is gentle and sensible, nothing to get worked up over. Holmes (McKellen) is the geriatric super sleuth who is losing his faculties. Over the 100 minutes he stumbles towards the deducing a few outstanding issues, but there is no snap to these resolutions; we're well beyond the fripperies of a whodunnit.
Holmes is spending his grey years living alone in the country, looking after his bees with a housemaid (Linney) and her inquisitive, smart son (Parker.) His memory deserting him but in a series of flashbacks he tries to recollect his final case, the one which caused him to retire, and a more recent jaunt to Japan.
The film's most telling line comes from Frances de la Tour, “You're so not Sherlock Holmes.” And he isn't, he really isn't. A theme of the piece is Holmes dealing with the gap between the real him and the fictional version in Dr Watson's tales. I can see why this geriatric Holmes should be nothing like the Sherlock we expect, because age eventually strips us of everything that used to be us. But when McKellen, who has brought so many heroic fictional characters to life, is playing the flashbacked Holmes of the last case, there is nothing to suggest that he is Conan Doyle's creation.
The idea of exploring another, darker side to Holmes is fine but this has no bite, it is just a kindly old man wandering about. It does though suggest a future theatrical tour de force: McKellen and Patrick Stewart doing a double hander, Aged X-Men Reflect.
Mr Holmes (15)
Directed by Bill Condon.
Starring Ian McKellen, Laura Linney, Milo Parker, Hiroyuki Sanada, Roger Allam and Hattie Morahan. 103 mins
Breaking with the contemporary fad for making Sherlock stories that are exciting and vibrant, Mr Holmes gives us a Sherlock story that is gentle and sensible, nothing to get worked up over. Holmes (McKellen) is the geriatric super sleuth who is losing his faculties. Over the 100 minutes he stumbles towards the deducing a few outstanding issues, but there is no snap to these resolutions; we're well beyond the fripperies of a whodunnit.
Holmes is spending his grey years living alone in the country, looking after his bees with a housemaid (Linney) and her inquisitive, smart son (Parker.) His memory deserting him but in a series of flashbacks he tries to recollect his final case, the one which caused him to retire, and a more recent jaunt to Japan.
The film's most telling line comes from Frances de la Tour, “You're so not Sherlock Holmes.” And he isn't, he really isn't. A theme of the piece is Holmes dealing with the gap between the real him and the fictional version in Dr Watson's tales. I can see why this geriatric Holmes should be nothing like the Sherlock we expect, because age eventually strips us of everything that used to be us. But when McKellen, who has brought so many heroic fictional characters to life, is playing the flashbacked Holmes of the last case, there is nothing to suggest that he is Conan Doyle's creation.
The idea of exploring another, darker side to Holmes is fine but this has no bite, it is just a kindly old man wandering about. It does though suggest a future theatrical tour de force: McKellen and Patrick Stewart doing a double hander, Aged X-Men Reflect.
