Mr Holmes – 2015 – Ian McKellen as Sherlock Holmes
Mr Holmes completely slipped by me. I had not a clue about the film when I saw it used at some second had shop. Of course I realized that this was a fairly new film. The quality of the cover and the condition told me that right away. And there are not many me called Mr Homes either so I figured that the main character would be Mr Sherlock Homes from Baker Street. Then I saw that this is actually mentioned at the bottom. It also says that Ian McKellen plays the part as you’ve never seen him before. Sherlock Holmes that is.
As somewhat of a Sherlock Homes nerd, at least I was in my youth, I agree! I have never seen Mr Holmes this way before. He doesn’t smoke his famous pipe and there are a lot of other things that’s not equal to what we’re used to either. In this universe Sherlock Holmes was indeed a great detective but he didn’t reside at Baker Street 221B. That was just Dr. Watson’s way of covering up some of the truth and make the character a little more fictitious. Sam with the pipes. In this film Sherlock Holmes confirms that he likes pipes but not the kind that Dr. Watson descried in his stories.
As a matter a fact, in the real Sherlock Holmes novels and short stories the famous pipe doesn’t exist. It was the invention of an actor in the early days, Basil Rathbone I believe, who found it easier to speak with that kind of pipe in his mouth.
In this film Dr Watson is married and Sherlock Homes has a small country place where he has resided and keep bees. He is on the edge of senility and has problem remembering things. All things is seems. There is, however an old case that bothers him. A case that was his last and for some reason he has decided to write it down just like it happened, not like the romanticized version of the case as the other stories Dr Watson wrote about Mr Holmes. Small pieces cones together but the big picture evades him.
But this is also a touching story about the friendship between the old Mr Homes and a young boy. I don’t know why but they get connected and it seems to help Holmes to remember details about the story. I know this sound lame but it’s a really good movie and Ian McKellen does a strong performance (did you really doubt it?).
