![]() The story involves secret societies, hidden clues, and sacrificial deaths-in all truth, it better resembles a Dan Brown text than your standard Doyle fare. The detective-for-hire, along with his trusty right-hand-man Watson, have more going on between themselves than the plot has trickery. But the film begins with our two heroes soon separating professionally, as Watson is getting married to Mary (Kelly Reilly) and Holmes is vying to keep his partner. There could’ve been no mystery at all, just a continued back-and-forth banter between Downey and Law, and the film would’ve still been a pleasure. Along with Law, who plays the straight man against Downey’s rough-around-the-edges interpretation, the result breezes by in a whirl of sharp teasing and wily antics. But Ritchie has brought Downey’s incorrigible personality and the actor’s superior British accent, honed, no doubt, on the set of Chaplin. Concentrating on dynamic character over plot, which Ritchie specializes in, seems to be the reverse of how Doyle originally envisioned the character in the late 1800s. Ritchie, making his entry in what will no doubt become a tentpole franchise, has slapped the viewer across the face to get their attention, and in the process changed the character for a less attentive audience. Forget that well-mannered gentility Holmes was known for in the stories and previous filmic adaptations. This film is about watching these two actors spar words in a hilarious interplay of squabbling amity. Rather, the film (re)introduces you to a roguish version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic detective character, as played by Robert Downey Jr., along with his sidekick Dr. Guy Ritchie’s revisionist take on Sherlock Holmes isn’t about involving the audience in a plot, or following the eponymous hero as he solves a mystery. ![]()
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