Wonderful Movie

Best movie of this year hands down!

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Sherlock Holmes has been retired for thirty years. Upon finally reading Dr John Watson's stories for the first time along with watching a "Talking Picture" depicting his last adventure, Sherlock decides to write the truth about his last case. Dr Watson had always been liberal with the facts, for entertainment's sake. Though, the last case is niggling at Sherlock's deteriorating mind... It must have been very important as it made him turn his back on the profession he loved. Will there be enough time to get it all down on paper before his memory fails completely?This is a nice "What If?" story. Writer, Mitch Cullen (who wrote the novel) and screenplay writer Jeffrey Hatcher do no disservice to the character Arthur Conan Doyle created. This is still the same Sherlock Holmes of the stories, though older, but maybe not wiser. Ian McKellen was a perfect choice for this aged character and he gives a brilliant portrayal. Though it's Laura Linney who surprised me the most. For me, she's never been a draw. However, I am pleased to say that as Mrs Munro, Sherlock's housekeeper, she is great. There was a slight moment when we first meet her and her accent slips into across between American and North Country. However, this is only for a few seconds. From there on in her accent is pretty good. Not perfect, though, not bad. One of my favourite scenes in the film is when Mrs Munro is discussing her late husband with her son, Roger (Parker). When Roger asks her if she's good at making up stories, her reply and the look on her face, along with the pregnant pause, really does show a whole range of emotions in just a few scant seconds - very well done. Milo Parker is a very strong actor who had to contend with working with a great cast, which he did seamlessly. The director, Condon, did a great job of not letting the character of Roger steal the show, which could have easily happened.Condon also does a fantastic job of filming. Using camera shots to add atmosphere and show locations to their best advantage. The part where Sherlock follows Anne Kelmot (Morahan) through London is a perfect example. The scene at the train station where she makes a pay-off is one of my favourites in the film. What with the steam filling the platforms and the shots looking between the moving carriages. It really does set the scene well.To be honest, I really couldn't find anything wrong with either the story or the film. As I've said before, I am not a fan of flashbacks. Though here they are used to tell Sherlock's last case as he tries to remember it and write it down. Then you have the remembrances of Japan where Sherlock has recently been looking for a remedy to his failing memory. These are expertly told and done in such a way that adds power and depth to the story... not confusion, which is the case with a lot of films. In a lot of movies, flashbacks add a disjointed feeling to the pace and structure. Luckily for the viewer, Condon is a master at weaving them into the story with seemingly effortless ease.This film is a must-see for all Sherlock fans, Mystery Lovers, Thriller Fans, and Armchair Detectives everywhere. This hasn't made it into my top ten movies, though I have to admit I'll watch it again... I may even consider buying a copy.

A curious approach to the Holmes mythology - this movie focuses on a retired and aged Holmes living a pastoral existence keeping bees, who tries to recall his last case as dementia strikes him.Played by Ian McKellen, he has a strong on screen presence but is a bit dull. He's aided in his endeavours by Roger, the son of his housekeeper, played expertly by Milo Parker as a brooding budding intellectual.There are some neat sequences, such as Holmes's trip to Japan and the beekeeping education of Roger, but this movie never really gets going. It's a pleasant amble through one of Holmes's cases, easy to watch but without thrills and spills.

This review contains Spoilers because I suspect other viewers may, as I did, begin this slow-moving, deceptively disjointed, seemingly undramatic film...and, on first try, give up because it's "depressing" and about a genius losing his memory. Is he really losing his memory? That treacly old song from the 70's says, "what's too painful to remember, we simply choose to forget."Sherlock Holmes in advanced old age, after the end of World War II, travels by train to a stunning country house he has maintained (we learn) for thirty-five years, after renouncing the profession of detective for that of apparently--none. He has been and still is profoundly interested in bees, and he keeps and tends bees at the country home. There, Mrs. Munro and her young son Roger (Laura Linney and Milo Parker) look after the home. Mrs. Munro is one of those dangerous people whose very bitter life experiences have left passionate about duty and routine, but less observant of the demands of kindness. Not a stern woman, and certainly never cruel, she is nevertheless mean-spirited, especially when two things happen: her adorable son (Milo Parker has a big career ahead of him) quickly shows aptitude for beekeeping and innate, aristocratic sensitivity to her boss; and, second, Holmes makes the brutal remark to her that it often happens that "extraordinary children are often the product of unremarkable parents."Luckily, "Mr. Holmes" is no repetition of either PBS' "Sherlock," or "Elementary," or the Robert Downey films. It does not exhaust the viewer with its hero's cruel wit. Except for this early and miserable slight, Ian McKellen gives a tour de force performance as a frightened, sometimes terrified, old man whose reason for living eludes but haunts him. It haunts him in the image of a Roaring Twenties-dressed female, a sad-faced woman whom encroaching dementia makes appear to him as real. But do his hallucinations indicate dementia--or a guilty conscience?The extraordinary thing about this stunningly plotted and meticulously developed script is that it remains so true to the "Sherlock Holmes" of legend, while filling in plot holes in other versions of the fictitious detective's life-- plot holes found even in the books. That plot hole will be addressed in an unforgettable flashback scene and addresses head-on the loneliness of a mind as brilliant as his. Loneliness as a huge part of the human *and* Holmesian condition is described in dialogue you'll find yourself reaching for a pen or stylus to transcribe; it is *that* good.Between beekeeping, a very private but frantic search for a cure for his "dementia," and the attempt to finish his "first story" (all the others were written by Dr. Watson), Holmes' mundane reliance on young Roger's innocence and idolatry of him as a father-figure becomes something much MUCH more than a cozy story of a grampa learning to be entertained by a kid's zest for life. At stake in "Mr. Holmes" is the redemptive power of love--and by the word "redemption," I mean salvation in a religious sense. There aren't words to describe how moving, entertaining, and sage this film is. See if it you're old and scared about the future, see it if you're young and scared about the future, see it if you're bitter and scared about the future. As Roger reminds his 93-year-old BFF, he had a 102-year-old uncle. Holmes characteristically tries to one-up Roger: "Ah, but what are the chances you'll know *two* who live to that age?" To which Roger replies: "I didn't really know the other one all that well."This film is a revelation in more ways than one.

So, I watched this without the benefit of knowing anything about it and not having seen any trailers for it. Consequently, I seem to have derived more enjoyment of the film than many others, who seem to be of the opinion that they were misled by the advertising.Intrigued, I did a little sleuthing myself (Youtube is a wonderful repository of movie trailers!) and was rather surprised to find the international trailer painted an entirely different tone to this movie than was actually present.See, Mr. Holmes is a rather uncomfortable look at a great detective who is far into his dotage and going senile, if not suffering directly from Alzheimers. The entire thrust of the movie is him struggling to remember the case that led him to decide to take an early retirement. He senses that he must have done something terrible, but cannot remember what. Of course, in the fullness of the movie's runtime, he does recall the case and why he retired, loose ends are tied up and pretty much everything turns out for the best.The international trailer, however, portrays the movie as a great mystery romp, complete with rather light-hearted music and a complete mish-mashing of several stories told in the film over a large span of years as if they were all part of one, continuous narrative.Accordingly, it is hard not to go into this film (if one watched that int'l trailer) without expect an entirely different movie altogether.Mr. Holmes is a character study, not a great mystery story. Though Holmes does indeed get to the bottom of why he retired, it is not so much a mystery, as him simply managing to put the pieces together and remember what happened.The movie, from my perspective of having no idea what it was going to be like, was fine, if a little slow. Ian McKellen shows exactly why he is so highly regarded as an actor, with a performance that is at once both effortless and endearing. The rest of the small cast also perform well and the movie as a whole is put together rather nicely.But it is slow, and it is not really about the solving of a great mystery. Given the trailer, I can see why so many disliked it.Incidentally, the UK trailer, though still with some rather jollier music than really suits the film, actually bothers to explain the basic premise of the film, so quite why the international trailer was so badly put together is a bit of a mystery.I should note that this isn't the first time a trailer has portrayed a film as something very different from what it actually is, and I doubt it will be the last. Many trailers use footage not in the theatrical cut anyway! It is on us all to watch such things with a healthy dose of skepticism. After all, they exist solely to get us interested enough to go and see a film. Honesty, these days, is a low priority.However, a mis-sold film need not automatically be considered bad. Mr. Holmes is a fine movie. Don't let the misleading advertising ruin your enjoyment of it.SUMMARY: Great character study. Not a mystery story. A small, rather melancholy, drama that delivers rather well, but which was mis-sold in the international market as something it is not. Worth your time if you ever wondered what might happen to Holmes once his wits dulled with age.