Sherlock Holmes

To avoid the rush hour this evening (and my fear of someone swinging a bag onto their shoulders after slamming it into my stomach - unlikely, I know, but who said fears had to be rational?) we went to see 'Sherlock Holmes', the new Guy Ritchie film. I've never seen a Guy Ritchie film before since I'm not particularly interested in 'diamond geezer' East End gang films, or whatever his genre is, but 'Sherlock Holmes' looked very different in the adverts I've seen for it, if only because it's in period costume.

It's a gloomy film and surprisingly atmospheric, a London of the late 1800s with lots of period detail despite the characters being surprisingly modern in tone - the relationship between Holmes and Watson could easily be from the latest cop-buddy movie and the women characters were hardly demur Victorian damsells. Instead of incongruous I found that quite refreshing. I couldn't work out why the baddie's henchmen were French but it allowed Mr Downey to display a great French accent for a few phrases. I though Robert Downey Jr's posh British English accent was fine throughout and, strangely, more convincing than Jude Law's, or maybe it was the lines Jude was given as the witty, sarcastic sidekick? Whatever, I liked the chemistry between them and thought it worked really well except for seeing them both without shirt collars - I've seen dozens of Sherlock Holmes films (Basil Rathbone is still the definitive Mr Holmes) and I don't believe either of them *ever* took their collars off, that's just plain wrong.

Anyway, I liked the atmospheric shots of Victorian London, the mysterious Thames and the skeletal Tower Bridge (that's a great idea, showing it just being built). It would be churlish to point out that the chamber of the House of Lords doesn't really look like that (and didn't back then), that the sewer from the Houses of Parliament doesn't lead right to Tower Bridge (which is miles away) and that there isn't a river route into Parliament but, as I say, that would be churlish. That's just the liberties of a film trying to maintain excitement and pace. Which it does in spades, great pacing and no lingering shots of anything.

I enjoyed it, a 'Boy's Own' romp of a tale of the greatest superhero - Sherlock Holmes with his sidekick, Dr Watson. It's a fun film and I wouldn't try to read too much into it beyond that, an entertainment that does what it says on the tin - entertain. From the way it ended I'd say that we're in for a sequel (with Moriarty as the villain) and I'll certainly pay some good British pounds sterling to see it. It'll be fun!