Movie Review: Sherlock Holmes

I finally got around to seeing the new Sherlock Holmes movie last night.

Now, I do have some familiarity with the character. I went through my bout of reading Holmes back in college. Apparently, it manifested itself in my short fiction class as the teacher was able to tell from my comments about a mystery we were discussing that my thinking had been swayed by my exposure. Alas, I put "The Complete Sherlock Holmes" down and haven't finished it. I really should finish it. I remember it as a good read.

What I'm getting around to is that while the trailers show an honest depiction of Holmes as portrayed in this movie and that particular Holmes isn't what we're used to seeing on PBS it seems to me to be a fair depiction of the character. More succinctly, I can see how they got here from there. The Holmes I read about is an investigator because he likes the rush, the mental challenge, of the case. He won't take cases that are too easy. When he can't find a case that satisfies him he takes to using heroin to simulate the rush. Similarly, he boxes and fences as a hobby and is a master of disguise. Any stuffiness attributed to him is a factor of the age in which he lived and not wholly accurate to the character himself.

Push Holmes forward a century and you have other characters he might have been. I'd compare him to Batman, but the Bat is too somber. Holmes would make a better Green Arrow. I'd call him Doctor Who had he only a TARDIS. The costume, the personality quirks, he'd do quite well there.

For that one person who hasn't seen the movie yet let me fill you in. Holmes and Watson have been roommates for years now. Watson has met a woman and they are engaged to be engaged. Holmes is a bit wounded by this and Watson's impending departure and makes some effort to sabotage things. At the same time Holmes' lost love and female peer reappears to torment him and hire him for a job. A series of cases all interconnect in ways that they only could in a movie. They all lead back to a mysterious man hiding in the shadows of his carria... OH COME ON! Anyone who has even heard of Sherlock Holmes knows who that is in the shadows. We never see his face, but do we need to?

The case is solved, after a fashion, but more questions are brought to our heroes' attentions in the last few minutes that set up for the next movie in what is likely to be a trilogy.

I will be getting this on DVD and will be waiting eagerly for the next installment.