Ironman as Sherlock Holmes

Film review: Sherlock Holmes

MANILA, Philippines - I felt something like a shock when I saw the movie poster for the first time. Sherlock Holmes starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. Great box-office potential. Nice photo. But they looked nothing like the iconic pair of detectives created by Arthur Conan Doyle. I thought then that fans of Holmes, and there are many all over the world, will surely see this as an affront, even a sacrilege. Law as Dr. Watson was not so bad. That mustache and umbrella brought him close to the usual image. But Downey, who, by the way, looked cute, had no deerstalker hat or cape or pipe. There was no effort at all to make him look like we have always imagined Holmes does.

Truth to tell, the layout seemed more like something for The Wild Wild West than a Sherlock Holmes movie. Although he lacked the cowboy hat, Downey had the printed vest down pat. That was the popular TV series set in the American West around the 1890s that starred Robert Conrad and Ross Martin as a pair of secret agents with a flair for forensics and inventing mechanical gadgets. It was later made into a funny action flick with Will Smith and Kevin Kline in the lead roles.

Come to think of it though, Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes tales were probably the inspiration for The Wild Wild West. Those were after all the granddaddies of this type of detective stories. The grand patriarch of the genre was, of course Edgar Allan Poe, with his eerie mysteries. But the one who perfected the odd couple style of having a strong, brainy hero like Holmes pair with an admiring sidekick eager to be of use as decoy, accomplice or sounding board just like Watson, was Doyle.

Of course, it is a given that when you have stars looking like characters from a slick action thriller there is just no way a movie about Holmes can look and move like a Hallmark serial. Besides there is director Guy Ritchie who makes movies like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and was also the guy who tamed Madonna, even if only for a while. He created a new Holmes, funny, sexy, big-mouthed, energetic and a bit of a slob. Nothing at all like the early film renditions that presented Holmes as some armchair detective with amazing powers of deduction and a snooty way with words, Elementary, my dear Watson. Ritchie even has Watson, who was once mostly the narrator of the piece moving more than he ever did before

The fiend Lord Blackwood is the villain of the piece. The guy practices black magic and wants to have all of London at his mercy, particularly Holmes who had sent him to the gallows. So he returns from the dead with more evil designs. Holmes in the old stories would have put him down with the flick of a cane and then produced a rational take on the unexplainable. Not in this one. There is just no way Ritchie would have kept this Holmes solving crimes in 221B Baker Street while in cocaine-induced lethargy. Holmes and of course, Watson take this guy on with all the muscles and cunning they can use. The only thing lacking in the action scenes is the flying. And in some instances they almost soar.

Forget about watching this movie if you are looking for that Holmes of old. But if you want smart, rousing entertainment, this Holmes should not be missed. Maybe it was wrong of Ritchie to do so but what he did was simply use Doyle as take-off point. Then with an eye on the box-office, he put in dashes of all those CGI heavy adventure flicks like Pirates Of The Caribbean, Transformers and even Downey’s Iron Man. The plot is flimsy but Sherlock Holmes serves up over two hours of breathtaking action in gorgeous settings. London here, both squalid and majestic, is at its most beautiful. The result is a strange mix but everything works.

 And it works largely because of Downey. The guy is on a roll. He is at this point of his career when he can do no wrong. Of course, it feels good to see that he is handsome, intelligent and an excellent actor. As in Iron Man, we have an action hero who is allowed to show off his brains. Even his bare-knuckled boxing is done scientifically. Law as Watson is a pleasant bonus. He lets Downey have the floor most of the time but he remains a skilled performer who shines all the time even when in the sidelines. The sight of him in that formal jacket is truly devastating.

But all is not lost in Doyle’s case. The appealing cast, the entertaining entirety of the picture and the prospect of sequels, Holmes’ 2 is already in the works, will surely generate interest in the original stories. Who knows, there might be kids out there who will be pried away from their psps by a new-found interest in Sherlock Holmes. Besides, now that Ritchie has seen what he has done, he might just decide to get a tad cerebral in the next. Still no need to worry though if that fails to happen. You can still count on Downey to mine gold out of the idiotic. Throw in Law for another exciting ride and the next Sherlock Holmes will also be a blast.