Review of Murder by Decree (1979) by Joshua S — 27 Feb 2012

I enjoyed the film, if for no other reason than how foggy and bleak it was visually. The tone of the film as embodied by the main cast was less enjoyable. Holmes and Watson seemed to be in good spirits throughout and their merry banter detracted greatly from the seriousness of the subject matter. Holmes in particular was a problem for me: he had none of the unsociable cruelty, inflexible genius or acerbic wit that we have come to expect from Conan-Doyle stories. Indeed, minus all these traits, Plummer's Holmes wasn't much more than an intelligent and rather likable character; and thus it seems odd and unnecessary that he should have been called Holmes at all: another London detective would have done just as well, and would have been free from the expectations readers might have had of Holmes.

The final scene, where Holmes reveals his hand to the top agents of the government (who are all implicated) is overlong and simply dripping with melodrama. Holmes' heartfelt monologue about the now-dead mother separated from her child was especially excruciating.

The scene in the sanatorium however, marked a high point in the film, with Genevieve Bujold teetering between delicate clarity and madness and the other female patients going absolutely wild around her.

Donald Sutherland's character was a pleasure to watch, but was wholly unnecessary to the plot.