Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is one of those works that would be better named "Robert Downey Jr. and his madcap exploits." The movie actually delivers on everything that it advertises: Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Rachel McAdams, pretty girl #2, villain #1, surreptitious villain #2 for probable sequel (unless RDJ continues insisting that Holmes is gay), swashbuckling action, pyrotechnics, passable storyline, etc. Why then, did I leave the movie theater feeling so unsatisfied, with a dull throbbing in my chest and a duller ringing in my ears?

The story starts with our intrepid hero, Holmes (Downey Jr.), and his faithful and almost as brilliant sidekick, Watson (Law), chasing down Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong), a practitioner of black magic and murderer of young girls and children. Having been caught, found guilty, and hanged, Lord Blackwood manages to come back from the dead and set his nefarious plan of world domination in motion while torturing Holmes on the side through his lovely on-and-off crook of a girl, Irene Adler (McAdams). The storyline is rather unoriginal, although the slow-motion and repetitive explanations given by Downey is different and rather off-putting. Instead of letting the viewer figure things out, we get exposition every ten minutes from a wise and entirely too earnest Holmes. It rather spoils the show. If we can handle Memento without step by step guidance, Sherlock Holmes should be no problem.

I never thought that this day would come, but I wasn't impressed with Robert Downey Jr's portrayal of Sherlock Holmes. His Holmes seemed a bit off-balance and trying too hard to be eccentric (he's plenty eccentric without having to try), yet down-to-earth. Holmes is nervous, yet assured. Capable, yet bumbling. Downey packs too much into Holmes, and the effort wears thin. The character that he portrays is a less convincing version of Depp's Jack Sparrow. However, even when not at his best, Downey still performs better than any of us mortals. Jude Law was surprisingly appealing as the jaded, yet loyal Dr. Watson. His character is cut more consistently, and the world weary air suits him splendidly. I'll be brief about the Holmes/Watson homoerotic rumors. Yes. It's true. They're in each other's personal space, a bit more than the typical man to man would. What have I missed? The women in the movie are negligible, the villain is passable, and one would think that London was gray 365 days of a year and rainy for 364.

In all, Sherlock Holmes is perhaps a bit more clever than the average blockbuster, and not an unpleasant way to spend a Monday afternoon. It's a fairly good movie, and perhaps yet another example of where my sky-high expectations have led to my downfall. Maybe I was hoping for something on par with Iron Man, where Robert Downey Jr. does keep it simple and appealing. Anyway, I would recommend Sherlock Holmes to all except intense moviegoers like myself.