Review

Review Date: 27-December-09
Spoiler Rating: Low
Juju Judgment: Jubilation!

Sherlock Holmes (2009)

Saint Nick left a wonderful surprise in my stocking this year. Being a fan of Arthur Conan Doyle and Basil Rathbone, and an enemy of introducing modern hipness where it is uncalled for, I had slight hopes for Guy Ritchie's rock 'em, sock 'em Sherlock Holmes. But this movie charmed me from the first. It wisely adheres to the historical setting, sinister suspense, basic natures, and core relationships found in the original tales and, with that grounding, offers a fresh take on jolly good fun.

Sherlock Holmes is a famous character whom few people would enjoy knowing but most people find fascinating in some way. He is, after all, an antisocial, arrogant genius prone to bouts of depression and fits of eccentricity; and, on the plus side, he is the best at what he does. Despite being played by doe-eyed, rumple-haired Robert Downey, Jr. (somehow so right for the part), the new Holmes fits this description to a tee. He notices everything and condescends to merely mortal detectives like Lestrade of Scotland Yard (Eddie Marsan). Instead of taking drugs when he gets bored, he signs on for cage fights where he uses his analytical mind to map out ways of taking down his foe. He perfects the art of moping in dark chambers on Baker Street, where he conducts odd experiments and pickles himself in pipe smoke. And after nabbing a practitioner of black magic named Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong), he has something particular to mope about.

The heart of this movie is the attachment between Holmes and Dr. Watson (Jude Law), longtime domestic partners whose life together is ending since the latter has decided to get married. Holmes is as distressed as a lover at this desertion and causes a scene when he meets his rival face-to-face. He tries numerous tricks to keep Watson by his side after Lord Blackwood returns from the dead, and the good doctor, being one of the most classic Right Hand Men of all time, allows himself to fall for these tricks. Together they follow a trail of corpses and chemical laboratories through the sooty streets of London, engaging in donnybrooks and uncovering a plot of prodigious proportions.

Bowing to a tradition somewhat younger and less respectable than the Holmes mythology, the movie gives the noted misogynist a love interest who also kicks ass (Rachel McAdams). Her character, Irene Adler, was created by Conan Doyle as one of the few people who ever outwitted Holmes and the only woman he ever admired, so her presence is not overly disconcerting. (It also opens the door to a sequel.) She joins Holmes for a finale involving another grand British figure, the Tower Bridge, rising in semi-completion above the Thames.

When the show reached this point I knew how Holmes felt being about to lose something he had come to love. Lucky for me I do not need black magic or trickery to regain this Sherlock Holmes and revisit his and Watson's new-fashioned good old days.

Copyright © 2009 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.