Review of Mr. Holmes (2015) by Nathan C — 13 Jan 2016

The casting of Sir Ian McKellen as an elderly Sherlock Holmes, battling the onset of dementia, is a stroke of genius. He is simply captivating in the role and totally believable as the short tempered and increasingly frustrated detective.

Set in the late 1940s, Holmes has lost all of his established references and is living a lonely life in a cottage by the coast with only a housekeeper and her young son, Roger, for company. Holmes is desperate to try to combat his increasing mental frailty and embarks on a strange journey to find a cur.

He is also haunted by fleeting and fractured memories of his final case. It is the persistence of Roger and the developing bond between the two that becomes central to the plot and it is beautifully played out by both McKellen and the young actor Milo Parker.

This is a nicely observed movie and the viewer really sympathises with the confusion and anger that the Great Detective feels at his own increasing frailty. Gradually, he is able to pull together the missing pieces of his final engagement and make sense of his memories and, in doing so, makes peace with his past and faces up to the future with a new hope.

Bill Condon, who also directed McKellen in the equally good Gods and Monsters, can be duly proud of this little gem of a movie which also has a beautiful score by Carter Burwell.