Sherlock Holmes
Jan. 15th, 2010 10:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsSo, Lisakit, Omaha and I went and saw Sherlock Holmes. The sets are gorgeous. The backgrounds are amazing. The special effects suffer from Bad Physics Problems when things are moving a little bit too fast, but other than that, they serve the script reasonably well.
Guy Ritchie, the director, is an ass who probably didn't serve the script as well as he could have; there were flashbacks-within-flashbacks that he both introduced poorly and timed badly; schticks that he used twice when they were only vaguely useful but totally ignored when Holmes could have, you know, used them to save his life; disconnects in time and space with poor explanation for how characters got from point A to point B; one terribly coreographed gotcha; and Ritchie's characteristic jerky cameras during fight scenes.
But really, go see it, because Robert Downey Jr. makes a fabulous Sherlock Holmes, and Jude Law makes an equally engaging Dr. Watson. I tried re-reading some of Doyle's work, imagining Downey's voice rather than Jeremey Brett's, and I have to say that it worked. This is no "bromance"; there's no homoeroticism in the movie at all. No, Watson has his fiancé, and Holmes deals with an old flame. Instead, the film has two good friends who work together and know each other well enough to be fond of each other's company, but to suggest that there's anything homoerotic about is to engage in the category error "all relationships have a sexual tinge." Theirs does not, and they long ago ceased to wonder if it might.
The dialog is wonderful, especially when Holmes and Watson get into their competitive moments. And they're given plenty of opportunities for it. But Holmes has good, working relationships with many of the police officers as well, and some of that dialog sparkles brilliantly.
Writers Lionel Wigram, Anthory Peckham and Simon Kinberg ("Passed from writer to writer in a desperate attempt to save it!" - Tom Servo) deserve roses; Ritchie gets only onions.
If you like fin de siècle stories, this one has quite a lot of it. Along with a naked Robert Downey Jr., handcuffed to a bed. Can't go wrong with that.
Guy Ritchie, the director, is an ass who probably didn't serve the script as well as he could have; there were flashbacks-within-flashbacks that he both introduced poorly and timed badly; schticks that he used twice when they were only vaguely useful but totally ignored when Holmes could have, you know, used them to save his life; disconnects in time and space with poor explanation for how characters got from point A to point B; one terribly coreographed gotcha; and Ritchie's characteristic jerky cameras during fight scenes.
But really, go see it, because Robert Downey Jr. makes a fabulous Sherlock Holmes, and Jude Law makes an equally engaging Dr. Watson. I tried re-reading some of Doyle's work, imagining Downey's voice rather than Jeremey Brett's, and I have to say that it worked. This is no "bromance"; there's no homoeroticism in the movie at all. No, Watson has his fiancé, and Holmes deals with an old flame. Instead, the film has two good friends who work together and know each other well enough to be fond of each other's company, but to suggest that there's anything homoerotic about is to engage in the category error "all relationships have a sexual tinge." Theirs does not, and they long ago ceased to wonder if it might.
The dialog is wonderful, especially when Holmes and Watson get into their competitive moments. And they're given plenty of opportunities for it. But Holmes has good, working relationships with many of the police officers as well, and some of that dialog sparkles brilliantly.
Writers Lionel Wigram, Anthory Peckham and Simon Kinberg ("Passed from writer to writer in a desperate attempt to save it!" - Tom Servo) deserve roses; Ritchie gets only onions.
If you like fin de siècle stories, this one has quite a lot of it. Along with a naked Robert Downey Jr., handcuffed to a bed. Can't go wrong with that.
