Indiana Holmes
Posted By Kathleen David on December 26, 2009
My review for the new Sherlock Holmes movie
But first, a little bit of rambling about yesterday.
Everyone got great gifts. Caroline made out like a bandit but she is the youngest. She has been playing with her toys and reading her books. She has spent quality time with her aunts and uncle and grandparents. I have had a good visit too. Peter got me a great present. I am the very proud owner of the Steiff Kermit. ( does the Kermit arm wave Yeeaaaaaaa!)
I went to the annual Dave party and caught up with some people that I hadn’t seen in 10 years or so including my evil twin (who is also my brothers and sister’s evil twin) Skippy. Peter came along and played Beatles Rock Band very well. It was nice to go to an adult party and talk to other adults.
There was lots of good food and fun conversation which makes the holiday even more special.
Part of our tradition is to go see a movie on Christmas which was part of Peter’s tradition of on Christmas Day he would have lunch at a Kosher Deli, see a movie and have Chinese food. The movie companies made this easier for us by not putting Dr. Parnasus into wide distribution so we went for Holmes.
Holmes for the Holidays
Wow! I haven’t been that happy about a film in a long time. It fired for me on all cylinders. I loved the music. I loved the cast. I even loved the script.
I am an old Holmesian. I have read the canon more than once. I have seen the Jeremy Brett series. In fact Peter got me the complete DVD set for my birthday this year. I have even been given the chance to write a Holmes story for an anthology. I missed the deadline and honestly regret having done so. I know my Holmes.
This movie satisfied my inner Sherlock geek. They only really played loose with a couple of aspects of the canon but even then they didn’t pull something totally out of left field. I have been defending this film to some other Holmes fans and most of their major problems with the film are things that Conan Doyle put right into the stories. Apparently nobody but Peter and me have reread A Study in Scarlet recently. It is all there right down to the dog.
Robert Downey Jr. did a great job as Holmes. Brett is still my favorite but this performance is right up there. Jude Law did an excellent job as Watson right down to the limp. There were villains and thugs through out the piece that rang true to what Sir Arthur wrote. No baker street irregulars but this piece didn’t need them at all. And Holmes explanation as to what was going on was pitch perfect. I’ll even forgive the love interest and expansion on a character because honestly it is the character that always seems to be expanded upon.
Yes, they did set up a sequel but I am not unhappy about that. In fact I will be there on opening day with my deerstalker on.
I am grateful that I saw Sherlock Holmes on opening day.
I saw it the day after Christmas to avoid the holiday crowd. I was surprised at how much closer this version of Holmes was to even the Brett installments. I figured out that Moriarty was the “professor” that Irene was “reporting to,” but it didn’t ruin the movie experiece for me in the slightest. I was a tad suspicious when I read in Peter’s blog that he has the original script. Should we expect a comics adaptation by him in the near future? As I said “over there” I’d buy it in a heartbeat! Maybe your Holmes story could be placed in the back of the trade paperback reprint of the mini-series! If Jim Starlin could collaborate with his wife on an original novel, why not a David/David team-up? I would definitely consider that a collector’s item worth purchasing!