‘Mr. Holmes’ Review: Stranger than fiction

Oggs Cruz

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‘Mr. Holmes’ Review: Stranger than fiction
''Mr. Holmes' depicts Sherlock with as much humanity as it can muster without abandoning the legend that he is as depicted in his fictional adventures,' writes Oggs Cruz

MANILA, Philippines – The Sherlock of Bill Condon’s Mr Holmes could not be as far from the myth that has pervaded our collective consciousness ever since Arthur Conan Doyle conceived the fictional character for his successful series of detective novels. Condon’s Sherlock (Ian McKellen) is shriveled and on the brink of obsolescence, a pitiful figure who is haunted by the shadow of the fictional man that was based on a mixture of half-truths and imagination.

Gone are the deerstalker and the pipe, items that have been associated with Holmes, and instead, he dons a melancholic daze and a simple cane to help him walk around his quaint estate where he plans to spend the rest of his life. Dr. John Watson, his loyal companion, belongs to another era. He is now tended to by Mrs. Munro (Laura Linney), a widow who has to put up with both the cantankerous nature of aging Sherlock and the pent up angst of Roger (Milo Parker), her promising son.

A multi-layered story

Sherlock watching an old film in the movie house. Screengrab from YouTube

At first, it would seem this adaptation of Mitch Cullin’s A Slight Trick of the Mind would focus on the obvious, on the deterioration of Sherlock’s mental facilities.

The film opens with him exercising his mind with a boy he shares his train cabin with. By simply noticing the boy’s subtle gestures with a wasp that caught his attention, Sherlock testily cautions the boy not to do what he has predicted he would do from the several clues he has already gathered. Truly, this is still the famous detective of immense powers, only this time he spends those powers for less urgent mysteries.

 

He arrives at his estate and befriends Roger, for whom he pledges to finish his final story. His story however requires more from him than just an act of remembering. He wrestles with emotions, the most resonating of which is loneliness, one that he has never addressed in his younger years when he was still surrounded by Dr. Watson. At the twilight of his life, he is but an empty shell, desperate enough for the attention of a young boy to start competing with the boy’s mother for affection.

Mr. Holmes depicts Sherlock with as much humanity as it can muster without abandoning the legend that he is as depicted in his fictional adventures. It is still crafted as a tale of mystery, only at a much smaller scale but laced with all the little details that one can never expect from a character whose intellectual capacity surpasses his emotional maturity. 

Acting piece

Sherlock meets a young boy and talks about his adventures. Screengrab from YouTube

Sherlock is clearly depicted by Condon as a man of complicated motivations. He is introduced as a curmudgeon, a man who is wasting away by virtue of old age. As the film unravels facets of Sherlock’s life through flashbacks by way of fragile memories unfolding as he writes his final story, Sherlock transforms into something of an enigma, a mystery as grand as the ones he has solved at the prime of his career.

McKellen has the experience, skill, and sensitivity to depict this version of Sherlock. With a swift twitch of his eyes, his Sherlock morphs from a man in danger of losing everything to dementia to the quick-witted investigator he once was. McKellen also displays impeccable comic timing, infusing the character more known for the precision of his deductive mind with sharp wit and self-degrading humor.

McKellen however is not alone in demystifying Sherlock. Linney provides McKellen ample support by depicting Sherlock’s competitor in his quest for companionship in Roger with such subtle emotional heft. Linney’s Mrs. Munro is the acid to Sherlock’s base. She is the soul of this very intimate mystery of a man whose life’s mission was to solve every mystery with apparent ease. She serves as the perfect grounding force to expose Sherlock’s shrouded imperfections. 

Elegantly told

Sherlock follows a woman that may have a clue to the case he's solving. Screengrab from YouTube

Mr. Holmes is perhaps too elegant a film. It is clean and precise, to a fault. The film resonates the most when Sherlock is cornered, with none of the skills and talents he has always relied on at work to pull him out of the dark. It is most effective when it displays the myth as a man of several vulnerabilities. However, Condon abandons a lot of the possible darkness for an ending that is far too soft for comfort.

The film starves for tragedy. It thirsts for real pain and ache to force as much humanity from a literary figure who has always been depicted as perfect in all his presumptions. In the end, the film’s study of loneliness falls short because it is painted with naive colors. The film never really trusts the extent of humanity it has gifted famous Sherlock Holmes and ends up as just a mighty showcase of McKellen’s ability to traverse the various facets of a man coming into terms with his newly found limitations.

Still, there is enough in Mr. Holmes to digest. Condon sprinkles the film with enough playful back-and-forth between fact and fiction to arouse discourse. The film is smart without being inert and obnoxious. There is surely some life and innovation left in the famous and timeless detective of Baker Street. – Rappler.com 

 Francis Joseph Cruz litigates for a living and writes about cinema for fun. The first Filipino movie he saw in the theaters was Carlo J. Caparas’ ‘Tirad Pass.’ Since then, he’s been on a mission to find better memories with Philippine cinema. Profile photo by Fatcat Studios



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