Mr Holmes

Synopsis: It is 1947 and legendary detective Sherlock Holmes (Ian McKellen), now 93, has just returned from post-Hiroshima Japan in search of a rare plant that may ward off his approaching dementia. He has become i\forgetful, and his only company are the bees he tends at his rural Sussex home, his grumpy housekeeper Mrs Munro (Laura Linney) and her young son Roger (Milo Parker). Amid his mental fog he desperately tries to piece together the details of an unsolved case - thirty years ago, and in fact his last - knowing there is something there that is critical to the understanding of his own life.  

This latest Holmes re-imagining is far removed from the classic Arthur Conan Doyle films with Basil Rathbone sporting a deerstalker hat and puffing on a Meerschaum pipe. This intriguing story is based upon a book, "A Slight Trick of the Mind", in which novelist Mitch Cullin posits that Holmes was a real-life detective whose cases were turned into best-selling stories by his trusty partner, Dr Watson.

McKellen’s Holmes is way beyond the zenith of his capabilities - he is now an frail old man, struggling with realities of old age and can barely remember much of his own life - but this one unsolved case haunts him. It is also the sad story of a lost opportunity; a possibility of love that may have completely altered his life.

Holmes’ aging makes it difficult for him to relate even to those around him, but the touching relationship that develops with young Roger is the one bright light in his otherwise gloomy life. The lad, beautifully played by Parker, is like a budding mini-Watson, and much to his mother’s dismay spends more and more time with Holmes. tending bees, and assisting the old gentleman in trying to unravel details in his memory of the baffling unsolved case. That particular case also features in flashbacks, with Hattie Morahan playing Ann Kelmot, a tormented woman who comes to figure large in Holmes’ later reflections upon the loneliness of his life. Linney is marvellous as the housekeeper and full marks to her for her wonderful English accent.  

Director Condon and screenwriter Jeffrey Hatcher deftly combine mystery, compassion and a sense of fun in this beautifully shot, entertaining and moving film, that also has an old-fashioned sensibility. The primary conceit that amuses is the idea that when Holmes was a practising detective, Watson was concurrently writing best-selling books based upon his cases. But the books were somewhat inaccurate and now in his dotage Holmes is desperately trying to correct some of the misconceptions. In a clever flashbacks to the past we see Holmes in the cinema watching a film version of  himself based upon Watson’s books, and reflects on how strange it is to see a representation of oneself on a 40 ft high screen. A subplot which to some may seem somewhat superfluous concerns a Japanese man (Hiroyuki Sanada) and his belief that Holmes’ was responsible for his father's disappearance many years earlier. .

There have been many Sherlock Holmes films but this one is notable for the simply outstanding performance of British acting royalty, Sir Ian McKellen. After spending time with him you leave the theatre believing in Holmes’s reality, and that despite his notoriety and genius, that he faced the same life challenges and regrets as do we all, albeit only in fiction are there such balming denouements as is allowed him here.

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