The widely accepted idea of Sherlock Holmes as a man of thought, not action, is false to anyone familiar with the stories. Reliant on keen observations, a sharp focused mind and a vast knowledge of the criminal elements, still the Holmes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's texts is always ready to spring into physical action and settle the dust with his own hands. Actually, he prefers it that way.
And yet, the Warner Bros version, directed by the gamekeeper of British bad boy films, Guy Ritchie, and starring action hero of the moment Robert Downey Jr., is apparently a tad confused by what their Sherlock Holmes is supposed to be: a fresh reinvention or a back-to-source revival.
The movie's Sherlock is, as the character should be, extremely eccentric, indulgent and skews towards the bohemian side; but Downey's portrayal involves a certain innocent boyishness that seems exaggerated from how he usually is. It's the kind of hero that's easily likable by audiences for being part-hero-part-fool, and Downey plays that kind very, very well. Jude Law's Watson is also in some ways closer to the books than he's usually known as, but again with some modern adjustments. He appears to be a capable hero on his own who, for comic purposes, would berate Holmes for his occasionally dumb and juvenile antics. When you watch any of the behind-the-scenes videos, you're going to get sick of the multiple times we're informed that Jude is affectionately called "Hot-son" on set.
This rejiggering of the Holmes-Watson dynamic is easy to swallow because it's basically the same as we've seen in countless buddy movies: the rogue charmer and the irritable partner. A little too familiar, perhaps, since the duo's running around death traps while arguing schtick are a small step removed from the Jackie Chan-Owen Wilson mold. It's a welcome spunk, though, since the banter between the two are easily the most entertaining aspect of the whole thing. The action scenes are hardly memorable and the murders mostly uninspired. You can probably erase everything and just keep the rapport between Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, and you'll still have a movie of equal quality.
It's not so much the more-action-less-thinking approach of the film that rings untrue. The Sherlock stories were always aggressive themselves, thrusting forward and only revealing the intelligence involved towards the end. Holmes' modus operandi had always been to leave others in the dark and explain later when all the facts are gathered, a method Doyle also used on his readers, and very much in practice in Ritchie's film. The difference is that Doyle knows how to keep the mysteries interesting and seemingly random for that WTF factor. A foreign word on a wall, a room with a mechanical press, a strange whistle in the dead of night, etc. They're mysterious because they're relatively abstract. In comparison, the mysteries in the film are pedestrian, and often predictable.
That's the problem when you have a scientific-minded hero battling it out with the supernatural in a supposedly normal world. The natural assumption is that it's all faked, and Sherlock Holmes will figure out the tricks, which aren't impressive at all when you already know they're tricks. Of course the guy who spontaneously burst into flames was doused with some kind of flammable material beforehand. What else could it be?
The premise of the film, set just before the previously established period of Watson's separation from Holmes due to Watson's marriage, does hold some interesting themes in science versus magic, particularly in the Victorian days of London's transition to the modern era. It's not so much a whodunit but a howdunit, the "who" readily revealed to us as Lord Blackwood, played by Mark Strong, an Aleister Crowley type with world domination ambitions, like any good supervillain. He kills people with sorcery, but surely they're just a trick? Enter Holmes, the logic-minded, to crack the illusion and save all of England in the process (perhaps because simply solving a case is not cool enough for a blockbuster action hero to accomplish).
Perhaps in the sequel, he'll save the world. Hopefully in a story that provides a more suitable challenge to the legacy of Sherlock Holmes' name.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
The Sherlock Holmes Blu-ray gets the special treatment Warner Bros has been doing with their big releases, and it's an excellent effort indeed. The Maximum Movie Mode consolidates all the different behind-the-scenes footage, interviews, galleries, trivias, etc. into one extended feature. All of those supplements show up at appropriate times during the playing of the movie. You can choose to view them in short bursts individually, but it's not going to be as immersive as sitting through the Maximum Movie Mode.
As with the previous Maximum Movie modes, the features are intertwined with a virtual version of director Guy Ritchie talking us through the film, bringing up the behind-the-scenes clips or even pausing the movie to point out details. Ritchie is not particularly enlightening to watch and the presentation as a whole comes across rather stilted, but this format is exactly the kind of thing that makes Blu-ray worth it, and really a welcome replacement of the director's commentary track.
"Sherlock Holmes" is on sale March 30, 2010 and is rated PG13. Action, Adventure, Mystery. Directed by Guy Ritchie. Written by Michael Robert Johnson and Anthony Peckham and Simon Kinsberg. Starring Eddie Marsan, Jude Law, Mark Strong, Rachel McAdams, Robert Downey Jr.
