Mr Holmes film review

Went to see this film yesterday with my friend Aj at the Leeds/Bradford Odeon.

IMDB says: An aged, retired Sherlock Holmes looks back on his life, and grapples with an unsolved case involving a beautiful woman.



In this Bill Condon (Dreamgirls, Gods and Monsters) directed film, from the novel by Mitch Cullin (Tideland, I Want to Destroy America) and screen play by Jeffrey Hatcher (The Duchess, Casanova), Ian McKellen (The Lord of the Rings trilogy, X-Men movies) stars as Sherlock Holmes, the character best known from the Arthur Conan Doyle novels, who in 1947 has retired from detective work to look after bees in a sleepy seaside village.  His housekeeper Mrs Munro (Laura Linney, Love Actually, The Truman Show) and her son Roger (Milo Parker, Ghosthunters on Icy Trails, Robot Overlords), an aspiring detective, look after him in his dotage, helped by his physician Dr Barrie (Roger Allam, The Book Thief, The Queen) who is the only one fully aware of his failing memory.

Plagued by his last unsolved case, 30 years ago, involving the wife of a Mr Thomas Kelmot (Patrick Kennedy, War Horse, Atonement), Mrs Ann Kelmot (Hattie Morahan, The Bank Job, Juliet Bravo), a beautiful but troubled woman, who secretly visits a Madame Schirmer (Frances De La Tour, Hugo, The book of Eli) supposedly for glass harmonica lessons.

Interspersed with memories of his visit to a Mr Umezaki (Hiroyuki Sanada, The Wolverine, 47 Ronin), he struggles to recall either with any clarity, but his bond with young Roger soon begins to uncover snippets of value.

Sadly, not a murder mystery as hoped, but a poignant look at a superior intellect in decline.  Fantastic acting from both McKellen and Parker make for a touching portrait of human frailty.



Trivia: Ian McKellen took a course in bee keeping with the London Honey Company prior to the film and was not stung once during filming, and he did not research the Sherlock Holmes books in preparation for the role.



Tagline: The man behind the myth.                                               7/10

#MrHolmes  #IanMcKellen  #LauraLinney  #MiloParker