Review of Mr. Holmes (2015) by Jackson F — 19 Jul 2015

2 out of 5 stars. The last Bill Condon-Ian McKellen film, "Gods and Monsters," resulted in an Oscar for Bill's screenplay and nominations for McKellen and Lynn Redgrave. Unfortunately, this new film is nowhere near as good. Perhaps I'm just not a McKellen fan, but he always seems to be acting for the camera in every film, not just being someone real from the inside out. He's become this generation's John Gielguld with some Margaret Rutherford thrown in.

Laura Linney is skillful as usual, although it's one of her drab roles, with a weird Irish working class accent that comes and goes. The film's third main character is a 10 year old boy. Since good child actors only come along once in a Jodie Foster or Haley Joel Osment lifetime, Milo Parker is just OK and at least not insufferable. Condon handles all the time shifts reasonably well, because the story jumps around a lot from London to Sussex to Japan with flashbacks, imaginary scenes and even dream sequences.

This is trying to be a British film, but seems inauthentic. "Downton Abbey" territory is very familiar to Americans now, so any falsity gets magnified on the big screen. The technical aspects are all very professional with camerawork, music, production design & locations all well done. But what makes a film good is the writing, acting & directing and this film is a slog to sit through. If it had been streaming, I would have bailed 20 minutes in. Most British TV we get here is much better and more genuine than "Mr. Holmes.".