Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey, Jr., Jude Law, Rachel McAdams, Mark Strong) – It’s a triumphant return that could have been just a retread.  Robert Downey, Jr. is too young for the part of the Great Deducer but no one will care once you experience this fine film.  Downey’s Holmes is eccentric, sloppy, casual and funny.  He’s also buff, prescient, resourceful, and charming.  But without Dr. Watson (Jude Law), he is merely brilliant and cluttered.  Law’s Watson is the perfect ying to Holmes’ yang.  He is intensely loyal, resourceful, neat and normal.  Holmes can’t live without a case to solve.  He and Watson just put the ultimate bad guy, Lord Blackwood, away.  He’s been tried, convicted and hung with Watson declaring him dead.  But not all is what it seems.  Blackwood, brilliantly portrayed by Mark Strong (Body of Lies, RockNRolla, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day), as a sort of Dracula-looking character, has control of a new technology (I won’t give it away) that he intends to use to re-take the United States for Britain and parlay into taking over the world.  Yes, the movie goes astray here but it doesn’t matter.  While Holmes turns into a combination of Jason Bourne and Danny Ocean, Director Guy Ritchie’s (RocknRolla) film most resembles The Illusionist, another fine period piece with a mysterious character (played by Ed Norton) and an evil, rich villain (played by Rufus Sewell).  I wasn’t bored for a minute of the 128 minutes.  Downey proves that he is in the top echelon of actors.  His mastery of the British accent and the film’s rapid-fire dialogue is amazing.  His physical presence seems to be so much more confident since Iron Man.  The trifecta of that film, The Soloist and Sherlock Holmes is a brilliant demonstration of range.  I will be disappointed if this film and Downey are not nominated for Academy Awards.