Review of Mr. Holmes (2015) by Nick D — 01 Aug 2015

Charming "little" movie, about as British as one can imagine, down to the English gardens and the frequent shots of the white cliffs of Dover. This is marginally a story of detection, but the clues are to be found in the retired detective's fading memory.

Which is the main complaint I had: for a story that dwells, methinks a bit too long and tiresomely, on the fact of the great man's onrush of senility (named, indeed, by the man himself), how is it that suddenly he's up and about and able to solve the problem and rescue the boy (spoiler, sort of)? I'm not an expert, but if he's been so bad off that he has to write people's names on his French cuff, it seems unlikely that he'd be able to recover.

Oh well, quibbling is almost as much fun as detecting, and not nearly so hard as writing a satisfying script. Condon delivers a beautiful film, with lovely performances by McKellan and Linney and newcomer tyro Milo Parker.