Rating: * * * *
Verdict: Cracker big-screen summer escapism.
Surely one of the movies' most-enacted characters - IMDB lists more than 200 going back to 1905 - the super-sleuth Sherlock Holmes gets a 21st-century makeover as an action hero in this rollicking reading that owes as much to Indiana Jones as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Adopting the attitude that there is no greater sin than subtlety, director Ritchie (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) gives us a detective stripped of lugubrious attitude and deerstalker hat and smoking a characterless briar pipe in place of the classic meerschaum calabash. He parlays the books' many references to Holmes' skills as a pugilist to create a man who likes nothing so much as an evening of bare-knuckle boxing in a gambling den (aptly named the Punchbowl) and who would, doubtless, warrant diagnosis as a manic depressive.
Never mind the internal contradictions this sets up: Holmes' perception is at one point depicted as so exquisitely sensitive that the hiss of a striking match is practically deafening, but he can handle the aural inferno of the fight club. And his blend of smugness and addled melancholy is confusing at times too.
Who cares? Bring on the villain, Lord Blackwood (Strong), apprehended by Holmes, sentenced and hanged before the end of the first reel but soon resurrected to continue with his diabolical plan to ... well, you need to see the picture.
Ritchie's lack of restraint undermines his best intentions at times. For my money the introduction of the comely McAdams as a cross between adversary and love interest is a silly distraction, and the over-the-top production design, which includes lashings of computer-generated Victorian London, too often dwarfs the characters. Holmes remarks at one point that "the little details are always the most important" but Ritchie's big-picture approach is deaf to nuance.
Nonetheless, judged on its own terms, it's a cracker piece of big-screen escapism. The always-interesting Downey caps a remarkable comeback from endless rehab with an extremely engaging Holmes, more nimble than ruminative, perhaps, and occasionally muffing the accent, but very watchable. Law's Watson is rather wet - he's an actor in search of a character, really - but other parts like Strong's villain and Marsan's excellent Inspector Lestrade make amends. Only the most pig-headed traditionalist could fail to be highly amused.
Cast: Robert Downey Jr, Jude Law, Rachel McAdams, Mark Strong, Eddie Marsan
Director: Guy Ritchie
Running time: 28 mins
Rating: M (contains violence)
