Mr Holmes (2015)
Certified: PG
Duration: 104 minutes
Directed by: Bill Condon
Starring: Ian McKellen; Laura Linney; Milo Parker; Hattie Morahan; Hiroyuki Sanada; Patrick Kennedy, Roger Allam, Phil Davis, Frances de la Tour, Colin Starkey
KRS Releasing Ltd

Ian McKellan seems intent on playing all the iconic and historical characters out there. Throughout his film career, he has been Gandalf, Magneto, John Profumo, Richard III and James Whale and here he plays Sherlock Holmes. Besides, he played numerous roles on stage and on the small screen.

Here he is reuniting with director Bill Condon with whom he collaborated on the excellent Gods and Monsters (1998). This Sherlock Holmes is far removed from the latest reworking that has graced our cinema screens. This is not an action movie but rather an adaptation of the interesting Mitch Cullens 2005 novel A Slight Trick of the Mind, which takes an almost elegiac look at the character.

It’s a more intimate film, one which brings us closer to the sleuth at a time when he is retired and long in the tooth. The result is a revisionist sort of Sherlock Holmes movie that will delight veteran fans of the character, fans of drama films, especially those that are styled in the British tradition, and those looking for a film that eschews class and intelligence.

Working from a well set-up and suitable moody script by Jeffrey Hatcher (The Duchess, 2008) Condon’s movie is filled with delightful performances from a well-chosen cast.

It is 1947 and Ian McKellan is Mr Holmes, a 93-year-old man who is trying hard to stay away from the limelight. He is not what he used to be and is happy living in his Sussex farm away from attention. At one point, his Baker Street adobe had been the point of reference for fans of the works written by Dr John Watson, who had once been his partner.

Here on the farm he takes care of his bees and spends time on botany, his favourite pastime. He is cared for by his cook Mrs Munro (Laura Linney) and her son Roger (Milo Parker).

The movie is filled with delightful performances from a well-chosen cast

Holmes is slowly losing grasp on his memory and uses his hobbies in order to fight against dementia. Meanwhile, he is pondering on a case that happened 30 years before. This involved an unusual musical instrument, a husband who was not happy with his situation (Patrick Kennedy) and a wife with no children (Hattie Morahan).

This was Holmes’s final case, the one which he got wrong and he is not happy about this. Also he is not happy about how his life has become so fantastical and his exploits so fictionalised in the eye of the public and he wants to set the record straight.

McKellan delivers an award-winning performance. He brings us close to his character and makes us believe he is the real deal. When at Roger’s insistence he becomes the fictionalised sleuth, we also get to see another aspect of the character. It’s this performance, along with the script, that makes this such a provoking and heartfelt character study.

The film’s structure follows three separate storylines which, with great skill, all come satisfyingly together.

Unlike Gods and Monsters, which had been a character study of James Whales’s final days which had a tinge of doom, this movie comes along with comedy elements that make this not just thoughtful but also entertaining.

The sequence where Holmes goes to see a Sherlock Holmes movie and is not impressed at all is especially entertaining. It’s interesting to see how he is disaffected and not happy with the mythology that has been set up around him and how he is perceived by the public. The result is a stately film that any serious filmgoer should do well to put on his list.