Going to the movies on holidays had become a trend in our family in the recent years. This year my family chose to go see Guy Ritchie's new film Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. Now as anyone who knows my Dad and I well, knows how much my Dad and I love Sherlock Holmes. We have both read all of Conan Doyle's stories about him and we have loved watching Jeremy Brett portray him on the BBC television series. So, of course we both had reservations about this new film, not the I doubted it would be entertaining but that I, who so love Sherlock in his pure form, would find that it strayed too far from the things I loved best about Holmes. However, I loved it. What was excellent about the film is that it made no attempt to be like the television series. While I still fell that Jeremy Brett is the greatest portrayer of Holmes to this day, he seemed to really capture the essence of Conan Doyle's character, Ritchie has given us a 21st century take on the Victorian detective. Both Downey Jr. and Law made their characters their own while keeping their essence true to the original. Downey Jr. made Sherlock a different character, changing him from the impeccable gentleman of Conan Doyle into a total mess with a brilliant, dynamic, and caring personality. I was most pleased with Law's take on Watson. I have always liked Watson's character but I feel like he often portrayed as stupid, as the comic foible to Holmes' genius. but Law portrays him as a steady and loyal man of action. Though he clearly possesses none of Holmes' brilliance and ability for deduction he is not shown to be a man without any deductive powers at all. I really liked this change from more traditional versions.
One thing I really loved about the plot of this movie, is that though much of the evidence points to supernatural explanations, Holmes discovers there is a very natural explanation for everything. I was concerned during the movie that it would turn out that everything was magic, which is too far away from the original Holmes for me, but in keeping with the character Holmes discovers the truth and let me breath a sigh of relief. My favorite aspect of the filmmaking was the way they showed Holmes' thought process in slow motion before he had done them, that coupled with Holmes' commentary allowed the audience to see his mind for how brilliant it is.
Everything about this movie was fantastic, the characters, the plot, even the music had a modern yet Victorian feel. I highly recommend this movie, and that comes from a great Holmes purist and true fan. I have not loved Guy Ritchie as a director but after this I look forward to seeing what he does next.
