Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows Review

After a heated argument with my family, a convention of Christmas time in my household, I stormed out with a few hours to kill. I sought sanctuary in the warmth and comfort of my local cinema, preferring a cinematic experience to aimlessly wandering. Despite the variety of options which included the third instalment of the Alvin and the Chipmunks series, I went with Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. Having thoroughly enjoyed the first one, I began to question whether or not Guy Ritchie was pushing his luck making a second. Nonetheless I tried to remain open to the claims that it would match the solidity of the first.

I am pleased to announce it most definitely did. Robert Downey Jr returns as Britain’s favourite detective with Jude Law assisting him as Dr Watson. Now I remember people suggesting a homo-erotic relationship between the two in the first movie which I simply didn’t see, yet in the second this ‘bromance’ becomes more evident as the plot centres on the married-couple intellectual sparing amongst the central characters, which works very well as a concept. The complicated pre-war mystery unfolding is simply a sub-narrative but the significance of the movie is Watson and Holmes’ relationship throughout, involving the emotional challenges of ‘letting go’ of those dear to us.

(SPOILER ALERT) The story goes, a criminal mastermind who also happens to be a genius sets up a series of crimes around Europe in an attempt to start a world war, when it becomes apparent that Holmes’ partner Watson has become a target in retaliation to Sherlock’s investigation, he is forced to intervene in Watson’s honeymoon plans. Accompanied by a young gypsy lady called Sim (Noomi Rapace) the trio begin a chase across Europe to solve the crime and stop the villain before time runs out and political havoc is ensued.

I thought it was at least as good as the first and was very well done. I enjoyed the industrial sound scheme, continued from the first, where the movie feels very mechanical which bares relevance to the time (1900s and the Industrial revolution) even Downey Jr’s accent is vaguely mechanized; he speaks in a very low tone where he swallows his words, which I really like. Jude Law is very good and overall the acting is pretty sharp, I especially enjoyed Stephen Fry as Sherlock’s brother, Mycroft, which may seem a little odd but weirdly enough it is conceivable.
 

I also loved the clever direction and the slow motion used which really gives us in insight into the genius’s mind. The narrative is very well thought out and feels complicated enough to be a Sherlock adventure, the Mulroney’s (Kieran and Michele) do a very good job of that. What really impressed me though was the historical relevance. Now inevitably it is completely made up but it did feel hauntingly real and I liked that a lot, that and the various elements of Sherlock’s character like his methods of deduction, as new ones are introduced, for example his study of graphology. The bogus disguises were also very comical and I found myself conscientiously looking out for Holmes whenever he wasn’t in the foreground of a scene.
 

As my inspiration for this blog, Mark Kermode, has said Sherlock Holmes 2 proves that Guy Ritchie can make a decent movie, he just shouldn’t be let near the scripting process. But as a Director he is clearly very capable and deserves some recognition for that. I’m not saying he should win awards but some critical acclaim would be nice. Perhaps a Golden Globe is in order, as I don’t consider them an award; I see them more as a good review in trophy form.

The only problem I had with it is it did feel remarkably like the first, which is fine because I enjoyed the first, but I just wanted it to pull away from it a bit and stand on its own, although maybe I would have been disappointed if it had been any different. It’s certainly one of the films I enjoyed most this year along with Horrible Bosses but would I rate as my film of year? Probably not. It was good but not brilliant and will be one of those films that I will pick up from the reduced shelf in a few years and enjoy again, but I won’t rush out to buy it when it comes out on DVD.  

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