Mr Holmes
Director: Bill Condon
Starring: Ian McKellen, Laura Linney, Hiroyuki Sanada
104 mins; Class PG;
KRS Releasing Ltd

Sherlock Holmes has been a constant player in popular culture for 128 years ever since he first appeared in print courtesy of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1887, appearing countless times in print and on screens big and small.

The recent Hollywoodification of the character via Robert Downey Jr’s version of the character and, of course, the ridiculously successful Benedictine TV incarnation keeps Holmes alive and kicking.

Among the myriad books about the character published over the decades is the 2005 novel A Slight Trick of the Mind by Mitch Cullin on which Mr Holmes is based.

A long journey to Japan to obtain a mysterious herb; an old case unresolved; a friendship with a young boy – these are the three compelling plot strands that make up Mr Holmes which takes a look at the famous detective (Ian McKellan), now in his early 90s, as he lives out his final days at his seaside home.

Yet, his peace and quiet are often haunted by the case that forced him into retirement, a case he never solved. As Holmes potters about his cottage, muttering to his housekeeper Mrs Munro (Laura Linney) and tending to his bees as he faux-cantankerously banters with her young son Roger (Milo Parker), the aging detective ruminates over the case he took more than 30 years earlier.

The case involved a man’s concern for his wife – a woman grieving over the miscarriage of their children and her subsequent odd behaviour.

The frail nonagenarian makes a last-ditch attempt to solve the mystery that has so eluded him in an attempt to finally find closure both intellectual and emotional.

He recounts the case to the young Roger as a means to help himself remember more detail, highlighting his fear that his recollections may be tainted by his failing memory.

A solid drama with impeccable credentials

For, as the young boy points out, Sherlock’s friend and assistant Watson’s written accounts of the case are quite different; a fact that Holmes pooh-poohs as mere “misconceptions created by Dr Watson’s imaginative licence”, as he seeks to dispel many of the myths that surrounded him.

Indeed, purists might recoil in horror when Holmes casually tells an admirer that he never wore a deerstalker hat and that he prefers a cigar to a pipe; while John Watson himself is barely seen, neither is Holmes’ brother Mycroft.

It may be akin to the horror Holmes himself feels as, in a particularly meta moment, a film he is watching based on himself and this final, infamous case casually throws facts to the wind… Interestingly, in a neat piece of casting, in this film-within-a-film Holmes is played by Nicholas Rowe, who played the character in the 1985 movie Young Sherlock Holmes.

But this is not a mere gimmicky exercise in chipping away at some of the tropes that make the character what he is.

On the contrary, it presents the human side to the man, known more for his astute and logical reasoning and astonishing forensic abilities; highlighting both his almost superhuman cerebral strengths and ordinary vulnerabilities.

It may not boast the sharp, mind-boggling detailed analysis usually associated with a Holmesian tale.

Yet, this alternative take on the man is an appealing, genteel story powered by a true-to-form performance by McKellen, who excels both as the older, wiser detective at the end of his career, and as the elderly, frail, pensioner clutching at fading memories.

The twinkling eyes and pleasant vocal tones as his mind sets to work in his better days provide a stark contrast the quieter, more pensive man the actor portrays as Holmes in his twilight years; and it is yet another sublime performance from the veteran actor.

Director Bill Condon, who had previously worked with McKellen on the equally superb Gods and Monsters, elicits similar strong performances from Milo Parker, who both as an actor and his character, holds his own opposite his much older co-star; while Laura Linney frumps herself up somewhat as the housekeeper. The many minor members of the ensemble cast keep the standards up, not least Frances de la Tour as the formidable Madame Schirmer.

Is it worth watching? Elementary, my dear readers – a solid drama with such impeccable credentials should indeed not be missed.

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