Well, it’s more fun than Avatar. Guy Ritchie’s daft adventure is being released at just the right time of year. It’s a silly season tale that will raise a few laughs, keep you entertained for two solid hours and not engage the brain a whole lot. Perfect after the Christmas Pud.
The last pair to take on the Holmes/Watson pairing on the big screen in this country were Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley in the jokey Without A Clue, which had some funny moments but didn’t really hold together as a story. Holmes was a figurehead, played by Caine, while Kingsley’s Watson was the brains. Here there is a similar jokiness, but it is set around a real mystery and, although there’s never a sense of real threat, it’s involving enough as a tale. It’s closer in feel to Young Sherlock, Barry Levinson’s fun look at how Holmes spent his early days.
Ritchie, who must have felt the backlash after the pasting he received for Swept Away and Revolver, has decided to pull himself together and make the kind of slight but energetic film he made his name with. It has some cracking set pieces, good cheesy one-liners and a cast who are clearly enjoying themselves, sometimes perhaps too much.
Downey Jr is a restless, bored Holmes, desperate for a new case, while Law is his Watson, a serious medical man trying to build a new life with fiancée Kelly Reilly. The game is afoot when serial killer Lord Blackwood (Strong) is hanged, but somehow gets resurrected, escapes from the grave and warns Holmes that three more people will die. Sherlock dives into the case in his bumbling, seemingly shambolic way, but is distracted by the attentions of Irene (Rachel McAdams), a figure from the criminal underworld.
Downey Jr is a strange Holmes in some ways – nervous, full of ticks, and with an accent that’s certainly not American, but not English either. He’s more jokey than Jeremy Brett or Peter Cushing – can you imagine either of those actors wearing sunglasses and a silly hat? Law is slightly irritating as usual, but together the pair have more chemistry than they do with their respective female partners. As Watson’s fiancée, Reilly has little script to work with, while McAdams is strangely vacant as Holmes’ supposed love interest. Ritchie clearly doesn’t do female characters.
Mark Strong is the go-to man for a baddie these days, and he has a great time as the evil Blackwood, complete with Bela Lugosi hair and lots of leather. His bonkers plot to claim back America for the Empire is a sideshow for the inevitable face-off with Holmes, which takes place in the Houses of Parliament and Tower Bridge. The lead-up to that features some enjoyable set pieces, especially a chase scene which ends in a shipyard, but an early fight scene, with Downey Jr stripped to the waist, is bizarre in the extreme. What is it with Ritchie and bare-knuckle fighting? That scene forms part of a slow opening act, but once Sherlock Holmes gets going it’s fun but forgettable.
Overall verdict: Jolly, silly, fun and forgettable, it’s a return to some sort of form for Ritchie.
Reviewer: Mike Martin
