Stevie Martin doesn’t understand why Guy Ritchie was asked to direct Sherlock Holmes but watches it regardless..

“…there’s only so much below par ‘hard hitting’ portrayals of cockney-orientated organised crime that audiences can take…”

Alongside Avatar, Guy Ritchie’s reworking of the literary classic has been the other must-see blockbuster released over the Christmas period. Having grossed over $200 million worldwide so far, it may be lagging behind its gargantuan competitor, but nobody was expecting anyone to seriously give James Cameron’s 3D apparently ground-breaking piece of celluloid history a run for it money. Also, did anyone else find Guy Ritchie to be, with all due respect to him, a slightly weird choice?

Lock, Stock was great. Since then, there’s only so much below par ‘hard hitting’ portrayals of cockney-orientated organised crime that audiences can take before writing him off as a one trick pony. When Neil Marshall, director of The Descent dropped out, Ritchie expressed an interest, having been an avid fan of the detective stories as a boy.  This, combined with producer Lionel Wigram’s visions of ‘a much more modern, bohemian character’ results in a complete overhaul of Conan Doyle’s deerstalkered Holmes and charmingly bumbling Watson.

The opening sequence, set in a Sweeney Todd-esque London immediately establishes Sherlock Holmes as slicker, sexier and more prone to doing things in slow motion. This is expected; a recent reviewer, whilst ruthlessly slating the film describes how ‘Guy Ritchie likes to make cool films about cool guys doing cool stuff’, and Holmes is no exception. The action slides forward and backward in time, illustrating not only what is to come, but what the audience may have already missed, creating a dizzying effect intelligently mirroring Holmes’s own razor-sharp observational skill.

“In terms of performance, this is Robert Downey Jr’s film.”

Admittedly the plot has been done to death; there’s an old book, a magical secret order, a guy who turns to the dark side, even a useful raven prone to popping up all over the place in order to denote entrances and exits of aforementioned villain, but it isn’t supposed to be ground-breaking. Ritchie is supposed to present a different take on an old favourite, an updated, sexier version of Doyle’s quintessential british hero… but more importantly, it’s supposed to be fun. And it really, really is.  Okay, so Holmes runs around trying to catch what is essentially a malevolent ex-parliamentary wizard, but it is Downey Jr’s performance, and Ritchie’s decision to retain the key elements from Doyle’s series- the loneliness, the constant and often very slightly tiresome observation, the capacity for mental instability- that gives the film its depth. In terms of performance, this is Robert Downey Jr’s film. The comeback king delivers a magnificently eccentric performance, nuanced and funny whilst simultaneously conveying the darker, more obsessive and lonely side to the painfully intelligent Holmes.

The supernatural plottings of the evil Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong) rarely stray into the realm of the cringe-worthy, possibly owing to Ritchie’s decision to have the villain’s face unnervingly appear behind people when you least expect it. He wears a cloak, he has a raven, he looks uncannily like Andy Garcia, but the moment everything begins to look a bit too Buffy The Vampire Slayer In London , enter Downey Jr with his quirks, humour, and most importantly, refusal to believe in the supernatural. Until the end it is never clear whether Lord Blackwood is actually magical, or just a clever scientist, and I won’t ruin the denouement.

“Thankfully Reilly, as well as Rachel McAdams’s strangely uncharismatic and unconvincing Irene Adler, are granted relatively little screen time.”

Jude Law, though being a satisfactory foil for Downey Jr’s Holmes, must have felt fairly frustrated at being forced to watch his co-star have an absolute ball whilst lumped as ‘the reluctant one who never wants to do any of the fun stuff’. In saying that, the funniest moments come from the banter between Law and Downey Jr, notably the married-couple argument that takes place after a pretty nasty situation in a dead midget-slash-dwarf’s laboratory.  The rest of the supporting cast do a fine job, except perhaps Kelly Reilly, whose portrayal of Mary Morston is, for want of a better description, just hugely irritating. Thankfully Reilly, as well as Rachel McAdams’s strangely uncharismatic and unconvincing Irene Adler, are granted relatively little screen time.

No, it’s not realistic, hugely gritty, or terrifying, but it’s entertainment. The set pieces are brilliantly shot, the humour works, the pace is fast, and it looks like changing tack was the best thing Guy Ritchie could have done. With the exception of a few performances and the odd, slightly tedious bit of occult-orientated wizardry, pretty much everything about the film works. Perhaps since Madonna went, Ritchie finally started to relax and have a bit of a laugh. Either way Sherlock Holmes isn’t meant to be Schindler’s List and thankfully it never attempts to be. We were promised a rollicking good blockbuster, and thanks to some sound directorial choices, a dollop of humour and Robert Downey Jr, we get just that.

Stevie Martin