Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows - Super Detective is Super Fun (A CherryOnTop Review)

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows – Super Detective is Super Fun (A CherryOnTop Review)

A girl likes a little mystery. But in director Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, the famous 19th-century detective doesn’t solve mysteries so much as tear apart vast webs of international intrigue with his two flailing fists. Does Ritchie do justice to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s ultimate sleuth?

In this sequel to Ritchie’s 2009 Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) pieces together seemingly unconnected bombings and assassinations and recognizes the handiwork of criminal mastermind Prof. James Moriarty (Jared Harris of Mad Men and The Strange Case of Benjamin Button). Holmes and his sidekick Dr. John Watson (Jude Law) join forces with a gypsy, Madam Simza Heron (Noomi Rapace from the original Swedish The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), whose brother is a pawn caught up in Moriarty’s intrigues. The trio’s attempts to prevent the collapse of Western civilization have them pursuing Moriarty’s henchmen from London to France, Germany and finally Switzerland—mostly wearing foolish disguises. With fights on steam-powered trains, Howitzer fire and fancy dress balls, you’ve got all the historical-flavored adventure you could hope for.

Now, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows has nada to do with the awesomely cold, analytical Sherlock Holmes made famous by Jeremy Brett in the Granada Television series that you probably watched on PBS. Robert Downey Jr.’s Sherlock swaggers and makes wisecracks like his Tony Stark character in Ironman. His Sherlock battles international villains and rocks some sexy bruises like Daniel Craig’s James Bond. And he fights and twirls in slow motion like Neo in The Matrix. Robert Downey Jr. is just about anything but Jeremy Brett.

Downey Jr.’s Sherlock instead serves as an updated smarty-pants hero in an unapologetically showy, post-Matrix thriller. This detective no longer contents himself with detective work; he’s an intellectual superhero facing off against his arch-nemesis to save the world. And it’s a battle of wits played out with fists (and early machine guns). Sure, Ritchie has retained plenty of endearing classic Sherlockian attributes—the pipe, the narcissism, the substance abuse—but he has also fundamentally transformed Holmes’ superior powers of observation into superpowers.

At one point in the movie, Sim asks, “What do you see?” Holmes replies, “Everything.”

Cue what I shall call Sherlock Cam: The camera zooms with bewildering speed from one clue to the next like a scene out of CSI. Gone is the audience’s slow pleasure in trying to solve a mystery alongside the detective; you can’t focus on the hints, and you can’t outguess the far-fetched plot.

Instead, Ritchie has chosen to take his viewers on a visual roller coaster ride, to great result: The special effects are absolutely breathtaking. Ritchie does rely a little bit too much on slowing down then speeding up action sequences to add drama to an already dramatic flick. However, he films one escape scene—our heroes’ flight from a munitions factory owned by Moriarty—almost entirely in slow motion, and it’s grimly magical as projectiles shatter the forest around the running figures.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is hardly grim, however. It’s a comic adventure in the same spirit as Pirates of the Caribbean, with as nonsensical a story and as flamboyant a lead character. Like Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow, Robert Downey Jr. remains marvelously deadpan while donning preposterous get-ups: Fake beards, 19th-century drag to rival Tim Curry as Dr. Frank-N-Furter and “urban camouflage.” Downey Jr.’s famously intense gaze does not figure greatly in the film, possibly because Holmes moves as frenetically as the plot; instead, Noomi Rapace steps in to provide the slow, darkly meaningful looks.

Theatricality rather than reality makes this period piece stand out. The sets are lavish, and the costumes, gorgeous. The characters in this outlandish movie come across as cartoonish rather than believable, but that doesn’t mean the performances aren’t brilliant. Stephen Fry radiates an irrepressible English cheer as Holmes’ brother Mycroft; he also happens to sport one of the best period hairstyles in a movie ever, a ridiculous up-flip, and reveals a large amount of bare male flesh. Be forewarned.

The big disappointment of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is Jared Harris as Moriarty—not his performance, but his sadly limited part. Moriarty operates quietly behind the scenes, and Harris’ demeanor is appropriately understated. Yet you see too much of his pawns to appreciate that he’s the one pulling the strings.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows might be set in 1891, but the movie comes off as so thoroughly modern that it even feels a little steampunk. Its pace is feverish, its plot convoluted. Yet, it’s highly entertaining, between the liberal dose of special effects, its dramatic staging and the comedic flair of its genius hero. But for every hero, there must be a worthy villain, and unfortunately Moriarty doesn’t get the screen time he deserves. Perhaps Ritchie is saving this for a sequel, for surely the Sherlock Holmes franchise will continue. It’s elementary, my dear Watson.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows hits theaters everywhere today (December 16).

- Elisa Mader
Twitter: @ElisaMader

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December 16th, 2011 | Mara | Comments Off |