Review 438: Mr. Holmes

Mr. Holmes is a fascinating, thoughtful drama film, an inspired characters study as well as a refreshing alternative look at Baker Street Detective.

Based on the book A Slight Trick of the Mind by Mitch Cullen, In 1947, Sherlock Holmes (Ian McKellen) is long retired at age 93 and is living in a remote Sussex farm with his widowed housekeeper Miss Munro (Laura Linney) and her son Roger (Milo Parker).
For the past 30 years, Holmes has been haunted by his final case, which remains unresolved.
Now spurred by a mysterious trip to Japan, Holmes quietly slips out of retirement to confront the ghosts of his past - and a spellbinding mystery he struggles to recall the details of because his mind is slowly deteriorating.

The beauty of this film is that it presents an alternative scenario in which he was an actual detective and the books written about him were in fact based on his many exploits.

Director Bill Condon's direction is smooth & stylish, the cinematography is simply exquisite and captures the simple yet lush look of 1947 South East England. The production design (recreating 1940's South East England) is excellent and beautifully detailed, the scenery is wonderful, the score by Carter Burwell is beautifully catchy, the costumes are colourful, there are some nice touches of humour.

Ian McKellen gives a magnificently touching performance as the famous Bake Street detective, giving us a very different interpretation than what we're use to seeing. The Sherlock Holmes we see in this film is old, tired, retired. His memory is slowly fading and he's not the man he used to be.
He's reminiscent and haunted yet still curious even after all these years.
To his mind, his final case got away from him and he wasn't able to solve it. If he can't put those pieces back together then he can't move forward.
His greatest strength were his intellect. But at this point in his life, those things have failed to provide him with what he needed.

Laura Linney

Hiroyuki Sanada

Milo Parker

Frances de la Tour is also

4/5.

The Anonymous Critic