We saw “Mr. Holmes” last night, a throwback to film-making
as it should be, sans special effects other than great cinematography. It is an example of how a film format can uniquely
tell a story, which on stage or in print would simply not be as effective (although
it is based on a novel, by Mitch Cullin, A
Slight Trick of the Mind which I understand the movie closely follows thanks
to the playwright Jeffrey Hatcher’s screenplay). It is the marriage of fine directing, a great
script, and superb acting. It uniquely tells
a revisionist story of Sherlock Holmes.
It is 1947 and Holmes, played by Ian McKellen, is now
93. He wants to set the record
straight. He feels that Dr. Watson -- who
is long gone from the scene -- has distorted his legacy, in particular a case
he handled in 1919. So there are
flashbacks to those times. Holmes is in
a race against time as senility is setting in and he is desperate to piece
together what really happened and rewrite the truth.
He travels to post WW II occupied Japan to secure a kind
of “royal jelly” that is supposed to have properties to improve memory. He then returns to his home on the Sussex
coast to work on rewriting the case and there he bonds with a young boy, Roger
(Milo Parker), the son of his housekeeper, Mrs. Munro (Laura Linney). Without going into the full plot, suffice it
to say it is his relationship with Roger which haltingly, but ultimately unlocks
his memory of the case.
But while Holmes has lost fragments of his life to memory
loss and aging, his powers of observation remain keen: so much so that his
brutally honest truths, he learns, have the power to hurt, and so the movie is
a study of redemption as well. He
acquires a measure of humility.
The movie moves with the pace of the slow section of a symphony,
not a criticism but an attribute given the subject matter. Themes are developed and come back to you
changed. And speaking of music, the
original soundtrack by Carter Burwell, always but unobtrusively in the
background, is still another element that brings a distinctive dimension to the
film.
Bill Condon, the director has made the perfect film. It is not going to appeal to a wide audience so
see it if you can while it is in some theaters.
When it comes out in DVD, Ann and I hope to see it again, this time with
subtitles to capture every bit of the dialogue.
