Movie Review: Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
By Michael Vass | December 20, 2011
The 2nd in what well looks to be a string of movies based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s deductive slueth features Robert Downey Jr. in the titular role and Jude Law as his right hand (at times literally) man Dr. Watson. Like the prior film it is a period piece, and filled with the British accents and locals that are home to the characters.
This film wastes no time in picking up where the first film ends. Dr. Watson is away, once again deeply involved in getting married why Holmes is equally busy with tracking his quarry – both Professor Moriarity (Jared Harris) and Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams from the prior film). Watching McAdams enjoyably trifle with Holmes and the verbal interplay was amusing, but sadly ends far too soon and surprisingly with finality. Though nothing is absolute in film, it appears that she will not be returning to future films. Still, the movie is consistent with the overall depiction of Adler and her relationship to Holmes:
To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but admirably balanced mind.
The film quickly moves on to introduce Dr. Watson, and a far more manic Holmes some undertermined time later. After a few scenes that will surely drive PETA mad, and a quick paced dialogue that conveys that Dr. Watson is no slouch in his own mental nimbleness, we get to meet another important character – Mycroft (Stephen Fry). [For those that have never read the books, the name is not a play on words or in any way refering to Microsoft]
This begins a maze of twists and turns, winding a path from England, to France, and on to Germany. The countries are critical as the time is prior to WWI, and tensions among the European powers are rising quickly. Anarchists, quite similar to the lunatic terrorists of today, are busy attacking innocents and blaming this country or that. Holmes is in a constant race to keep up with the next disaster, and hopefully avert the fall of the dominoes.
This film does an excellent job of conveying the time with accuracy. Unlike most romanticised views of the time, we see Europe more as it was. Gritty, dirty, crowded but filled with a feel of expansion and growth into something else. There is also the clear distinction between the classes and the areas they inhabit, which Holmes travels between with fluidity but never ease as he is an outsider everywhere due to his mind.
The acting is on par with the first film. Downey is quite believeable as the drug addicted (only referenced once in the film, early on and in just 1 sentance) revengeful foil to the plans of Professor Moriarity. Even in the most calm scenes of the film, Downey seems disheveled and out of sync with the world, giving Holmes an akwardness you might expect for someone who is reading the tea leaves as he sips.
Jude Law bring in a noteworthy performance. His Dr. Watson is sharp and intelligent, obscuring a man that is more akin to the wild abandon that is Holmes than he would care to admit. Law again exemplifies why Dr. Watson is both a confidant and conspirator to all the things that Holmes tries to accomplish. This movie though adds a touch of the harsher life before meeting Sherlock Holmes, the skill of Dr. Watson’s marksmanship honed in wartime and his rowdy behavior that accompanies his love of drink. In fact, in one of the more personal battles between Holmes and Watson (during a larger battle of mercenaries agaist the duo), we get to see Watson battle with his desire to live a life of adventure and his deep desire to have a family and wife.
Jared Harris has the toughest role. He must give Prof. Moriarity a strong sense of amoral ambition, and a willingness to inflict pain without making him loathesome or evil – as the character is neither. He had to provide the character with intelligence, and patience for his long plans and web of interactions, yet make him move with purpose between these steps. Lastly he needed to impart how much pleasure Prof. Moriarity takes in battling with Holmes and yet his need to win. It is a difficult role based on many subtlies, and while most scenes are very effective not all are.
Perhaps the worst role in the movie is that of Stephen Fry’s Mycroft. This is not because of an inability on the part of Fry (probably best known to American audiences for his part in V for Vendetta) but because of the script and direction. Mycroft is address as more of a high society snob. A man detached from the day to day travails of the common man, and filled with as many eccentricities as his staff and brother combined.
This is done well by Fry, but it does not convey what Sir Doyle filled the character with. Mycroft is the smarter brother of Sherlock. His knowledge and abilities are so invaluable to the Queen that not even Holmes is clear what he does for the nation of England. Mycroft is the resource that Holmes depends upon when he is in a corner, and a sage wisdom when perplexed. Of course Mycroft is eccentric, which Fry portrays well as he is nude and discussing breakfast with Dr. Watson’s newlywed wife.
The conclusions of every department are passed to him [Mycroft], and he is the central exchange, the clearinghouse, which makes out the balance. All other men are specialists, but his specialism is omniscience.
Yet this never gells with why Prof. Moriarity, who is so determined to kill Dr. Watson and his wife – thus hurting Holmes, is unwilling to even attempt to spy on Mycroft. Or why Mycroft is able to move without fear of reprisal from Moriarity. Those that have read the books get it. It’s a battle that Moriarity is rather sure he would lose, if ever Mycroft was bothered to care about the petty actions of Holmes or Moriarity, or suffer to have to act on them. But the film never conveys this, thus relegating Fry to merely an oddity and transition device.
Another weak point in the film is the ending sting against the plans of Moriarity by Holmes. Involving the wife of Watson, it begs the question of how she could break a code by herself – created by an equal to Holmes. Even with the correct key code, an ordinary person would be expected to be quite hard pressed to accomplish the feat in 3x the time she had available. Then again, the roles for women (other than McAdam’s tenatious and qualified Adler) in the film are quite limitied, as they are in the books, which does not bode well in modern storytelling.
The film is definitely at its best in the slow stop-motion action scenes. Whether it is Downey’s Holmes dispatching 4 rogues, or a race out of a forest under seige by mortars and artillery, there is a thrill of violence that plays well with the preceding or following intellectual dialogue. Guy Ritchie perhaps overuses this in the middle of the film, as if the audience forgot the opening sequence, with a monologue that is completely without need. Still, the flair in the film is the action and enough to keep most male audience members attentive.
Overall this is a good film and worth the money to see in a theater. The performances are well-done (though not Oscar worthy), the dialogue refreshingly adult and beyond the normal need to reach the lowest common denominator – without losing the audience in the process. The plot is well written and worth paying attention to in detail.
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Although all of the freshness that was part of the first one is somewhat over-used, the flick is still a lot of fun with Downey Jr., Harris, and Law breathing life into each of their own characters. However, I was kind of disappointed by Noomi Rapace’s role as she just simply stands there and really doesn’t do anything. Regardless though, good review. Check mine out when you can.