| Mr. Holmes (2015) | |
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Rating: 7.7/10 (2528 votes) Director: Bill Condon Writer: Mitch Cullin (based on the novel by), Arthur Conan Doyle (characters), Jeffrey Hatcher, Mitch Cullin (novel) Stars: Ian McKellen, Laura Linney, Milo Parker, Hiroyuki Sanada Runtime: 104 min Rated: PG Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery Released: 17 Jul 2015 |
| Plot: An aged, retired Sherlock Holmes looks back on his life, and grapples with an unsolved case involving a beautiful woman. | |
I’m a big fan of Sherlock Holmes, so there was no way I was not going to see the talented and generally wonderful Sir Ian McKellen take his turn at portraying the great detective. The movie is not based on Conan Doyle’s stories and therefore basically fan fiction – but very good fan fiction.
The main plotline tells of us a 93-year-old Holmes who returns from post-war Japan (where he was looking for prickly pear to help restore his decreasing mental faculties, a story we learn in flashbacks) to his cottage in the South of England, where he lives with his bees, being looked after by a long-suffering housekeeper and her son. The latter is pretty much Holmes’ only friend, as well as his sounding board as the old man tries to remember the very last case he took before retiring. A man who made his living knowing everything, Holmes now cannot remember what it was about that case that made him leave London behind and hide himself with his bees.
We as the audience learn about this second storyline, set 30 years before, right after Watson left Baker Street to get married, right along with Holmes and young Roger, who hero-worships the old detective and does everything he can do help him. Kid characters in movies are hit and miss (well, mostly miss) for me, but Roger is smart and endearing without being annoying. The characters in the London-based case story feel less three-dimensional, more like a classic Sherlock Holmes story, right until the very emotional conclusion.
By this point we have come to care very much for Holmes, thanks to McKellen’s touching portrayal of the old man’s struggle with his failing body and mind, and all three storylines fit together to make a beautiful picture.
The last bow of a master sleuth
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Mr. Holmes (2015)
Summary
What does the man with the most brilliant mind do when it starts to fail him? He tries with increasing desperation to stop the ravages of time in order to regain memories of the case that led him to give up his practice as London’s best consulting detective and retire to the country to keep bees. The movie tells its touching story by deftly interweaving three different plotlines, and Sir Ian McKellen gives an excellent performance (as per usual), both as the ailing Sherlock Holmes building a relationship with the precocious (and surprisingly endearing, for a kid actor) son of his housekeeper and in flashbacks to aforementioned last case. Definitely recommended, not just for Sherlockians.