Film Review - Sherlock Holmes

Last night I finally got myself to go and see the new Sherlock Holmes movie by Guy Ritchie. Being a huge Sherlock nerd it was with anticipation and dread I seated myself and I must be honest, I didn't expect to like it.
But I did! It was awesome. Okay, it wasn't the slow costume-drama the Granada series with Jeremy Brett gave us, but let's be honest. Who would have wanted to see a 2 hour version of those episodes, no matter how much you absolutely love it.
I still feel Jeremy Brett did the best portrayal of Holmes ever, and that will never change.

I've read all of the stories, and to be honest they are not Nobel-prize material, and they are pretty short and empty of details. So that leaves lot's of room for interpretation, and this film; Sherlock Holmes,  is Guy Ritchies interpretation of the classic old English superhero.

First of all the set direction and production design was fantastic. You became instantly transported into 19th century London, with it's dirty smelly back alleys and mix of beggars in scruffy clothes and the upperclass with beautiful dresses and suits. We even have a half-built Tower bridge, and the brilliant thing is that I was not once sucked out of the environment due to a bad CGI (hello Alice in Wonderland). I've later read that there was some small mistakes in the background but there was nothing obvious that really bothered you.

Sherlock is played by Robert Downey Jr here and it's a bit of a shocker, isn't it? An American playing the most quintessential of Brits?  Well, it sort of works and it all comes down to this new take on the Holmes character they have chosen. Where Jeremy Brett almost always had every hair in the right place and was clean shaven, Downey Jr is a mess. His place is not even a creative mess, more a mess. But for me, it works!

       Jeremy Brett - A clean cut SH                                     Robert Downey Jr. - A scruffy Holmes

The movie also kept its momentum all the way through, I never once looked at my clock or let my mind wander. And I also thought it kept itself on the right side of silliness, and the homo-erotic tendencies some people found speaks more for themselves. It actually IS possible to make a modern film without making it gay, and gay doesn't make movies automatically good (hello Brokeback Mountain).

I also liked Jude Law as Watson, though the Watson-Holmes relationship was strange and different from what I've used to but totally believable. And the man looks good in a stache, what's up with that? Only Stalin, Kaiser Wilhelm and Magnum ever looked good in a moustache.

There are some plot holes and some mistakes but all in all a pretty sweet movie, and I wouldn't mind a second if there was ever a good script.