"If you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains - however improbable - must be the truth."
Hello everyone!
Back again with another movie review and I have to say I had a different one waiting, as I still have quite a list of those I watched during my time spent in Croatia, but I postponed that in favour of a more recent watch. And with recent I mean I actually saw the movie this week.
I was invited to have a bit of a get-together and a movie night with two good friends of mine, and even though it was a weeknight which means that mostly everyone has to either get up early the next day or there's a lot to be done and you'd do well to be well rested, we spent quite a few hours just chatting and catching up before actually plunging into the movie itself. Once we did though, it was easy to see why it's so much better, sometimes, to watch movies at home rather than in the cinema, as it's a lot more comfortable and discussion-prompting.
The movie we watched was Mr. Holmes.
I had seen the trailer for the movie because, like so many others, I'm a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes and I've obviously been waiting for the fourth season of Sherlock like the rest of the world. Then of course Mr. Holmes had to go and secure Ian McKellen as the titular character, and I was sold even before I'd seen the movie. Sir Ian is pretty much one of the best still-living actors as far as I'm concerned, and besides I adored him as Gandalf, obviously.
The story follows an elderls Sherlock Holmes in the English countryside where he has retired to so that he may tend to his bees and live out the rest of his life in peace. His housekeeper, Mrs. Munro is basically the only other adult he interacts with on a regular basis aside from his doctor, and her son Roger pretty much completes human resources.
At the beginning of the movie, Holmes has just returned from a trip to Hiroshima, where he has acquired a plant called prickly ash, and he begins using jelly made from it to help his ailing mind. As an elderly man, his memory is failing and he sometimes has trouble remembering certain things, places, names, etc. He has retired from Baker Street but we aren't exactly sure why to begin with; we do, however, know that he is unhappy with Watson's depiction of his last case, and he's working on rewriting it the way that it ought to be. With Roger's gentle prodding, Holmes begins to remember how everything actually happened.
Through flashbacks, we see a young husband, Mr. Kelmot, ask Holmes to find out why his wife Ann has changed so much after two miscarriages (hmm, I don't know, good sir, maybe because SHE LOST TWO CHILDREN?!). As Holmes follows Ann, her actions lead us to believe she is planning to murder her husband and live off his money, but in truth she simply wants tombstones for the children and herself (since her resolution is to commit suicide). Holmes tries to persuade her otherwise, but when she asks if they could be lonely together, he tells her to return to her husband, which leads to her stepping in front of a train. This in turn prompted the detective to retire to the country.
Another story that runs through the movie is about a Japanese man, Umezaki, who helps Holmes get the prickly ash, but also blames him for his father abandoning him and his mother to remain in England. Holmes first tells him he never knew his father, but then later realizes that, just as Watson's fictionalized depiction of the marital case was a sort of kindness, he could do something similar for Umezaki and sends him a letter detailing what, precisely happened with his father. Whether or not this is the truth or something he made up isn't fully specified, however (I'm leaning towards the truth - Holmes and lies didn't do too well together).
While we are told the truth through flashbacks, we also see Holmes' health deteriorating and the rowing tension between him and Mrs. Munro, although he and Roger get along fabulously and take care of the bees in the apiary together. Through their care, Holmes gradually begins to warm up towards other human beings, something that he was more or less incapable of before.
This becomes hugely apparent as Roger is found with a severe allergic reaction, having been stung by wasps; Holmes manages to save the boy by calling the ambulance, and his bees since he explains how it all happened to Mrs. Munro. He also tells her that he is leaving the house and estate to her and her son, and she wouldn't have to take another job she wouldn't be happy with. In the end, we see that Roger has begun teaching his mother about bees, and Holmes makes peace with the people long-gone in a Japanese tradition, with a ring of stones.
I really enjoyed the movie and the fact that it was basically three actors pretty much throughout it all. And Ian McKellen was superb, of course. The one thing that made me feel a bit weird in a way was seeing Holmes being quite ... human.
Don't get me wrong, obviously he isn't a robot or anything, but Holmes, from what I've read in the original stories, was never much of a humanist, he was simply a man with great mental capabilities. Connecting to people though? Not so much.
Aside from that minor quip, however, I like this addition to the Sherlock Holmes universe, and I think it's a fine, non-complicated movie to watch on a lazy Sunday!
xx
*images and video not mine
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