Review: Sherlock Holmes
I am a lamen when it comes to the canon of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, so I can’t make comparisons about how loyal it is to the source material. What I can comment on is a film that is equal parts enjoyable and grating.
Robert Downey Jr. can’t make a film and not charm the shit out of you and make you interested in whatever he’s doing, but Sherlock Holmes takes the best thing it has going for it and drowns it in a flood of facts and figures and never-ending clues. As someone who loves House, which is based solely as an homage to Sherlock Holmes, and enjoy the detective epics like The Da Vinci Code and National Treasure, I couldn’t help but care less about this in Sherlock Holmes. Obviously, this film needs to be based in a detective tale, but it swims in those waters too much.
The best parts of the film are when RDJ’s Sherlock is quibbling with Jude Law’s Dr. Watson. You totally buy the strange, almost romantic bond between these men, which is based in a mutual fascination with the seemingly unexplainable. The film would be much better served in lingering in their conversations and molding it around the action happening around them. Sadly, they do not, and by the end of the film, you could really care less about the resolution because their are just far too much information to cover.
It’s not terrible film by any means, merely a misguided one.
