Review: Sherlock Holmes

Anyone expecting to see a proper literary adaptation of one of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes mystery stories should probably stick to the films of the 1940s starring Basil Rathbone. Instead what we have here is a neat little mystery story about a mismatched pair of flatmates who just happen to be Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. The film presents Holmes and Watson as equals and are almost a comedy pairing while Robert Downey Jr.'s Sherlock Holmes is the funny man often easily bored and getting himself into stick situations, Jude Law's Watson is the sensible straight man with a medical mind and he often despairs of Holmes' antics. Tne two share a likeable chemistry, which is key to a film of this manner, and at times act like an old married couple to the extent where Holmes tries to break up Watson's impending marriage.

Guy Ritchie's love of London is evident in the filming the architecture and structure of London are used to great effect throughout especially in the final scenes. Rithcie's problem has always been his script-writing as he seems to think all Londoners speak like Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins. Instead the script has three writers Michael Robert Johnson (who also came up with the story idea along with producer Lionel Wigram), writer of the upcoming Eastwood film Invictus Anthony Peckham and Simon Kinberg who has a background in writing scripts for action movies including Mr and Mrs Smith, Jumper and X3. The story itself is all based around the occult and the undead and a legendary order that threatens to overthrow the government. But basically the story acts as a catalyst to the character's actions rather than being the main thrust of the film.

Of the supporting cast Mark Strong is excellent as the villianous Lord Blackwood while the reliable Eddie Marsan has brilliant banter with Downey Jr as the chief of police. Rachel McAdams' female lead is the one weak link as we are meant to believe that her intellect is on a par with that of Holmes but often she appears so feckless that you wonder how she keeps getting one up on him. In fact the character mainly exists to usher in Dr. Moriaty who will obviously feature heavily if the film gets more sequels. The film may be a little overly violent at times but most of the violence is played for comic effect rather than anything else. Overall this is a nice little comedy action film with great chemistry between the central characters. While it probably wouldn't stand up to repeat viewing its brilliant switch-your-mind-off and enjoy type fare and as it has already done such good business I expect the franchise to continue.