ThedevilChoose
When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.
bob-1135
What a load of incomprehensible claptrap! Ian McKellen is a very good actor but this was full of very good actors that were not even given one minutes screen time. It is hailed as the mystery of his last case - what last case? There was no mystery as to what happened.
And as for Holmes visiting a remarkable undamaged Nagasaki only two years after the atomic bomb - what? In fact you could have cut the whole Japanese content and made not a jot of difference to the film.
This was just a shabby attempt to lure people using the Sherlock Holmes angle, and it turned into a maudlin heap of nothing.
Brigid O Sullivan (wisewebwoman)
And oddly depressive film featuring the great Ian MacLennan and Laura Linney. Not forgetting the child actor, Milo. All doing their very best with a plot that is tedious with the added bonus of making old age, even for the brilliant Sherlock, a hideous business indeed.Add to that two uninteresting and meandering flashbacks, the hook of Holmes's faltering memory not capturing the resolution to a case that haunts him (a glove, a letter) and it all adds up to quite a yawn.The pointless emotional maneuvering of the 3rd act, really destroyed the whole film for me and then Sherlock on his knees in the meadow with stones for this dead ones, no this was not the Sherlock I adored all through those books and films.4 out of 10, quite disappointing but the cinematography and sets were lovely.
hilaryjrp
This review contains Spoilers because I suspect other viewers may, as I did, begin this slow-moving, deceptively disjointed, seemingly undramatic film...and, on first try, give up because it's "depressing" and about a genius losing his memory. Is he really losing his memory? That treacly old song from the 70's says, "what's too painful to remember, we simply choose to forget."Sherlock Holmes in advanced old age, after the end of World War II, travels by train to a stunning country house he has maintained (we learn) for thirty-five years, after renouncing the profession of detective for that of apparently--none. He has been and still is profoundly interested in bees, and he keeps and tends bees at the country home. There, Mrs. Munro and her young son Roger (Laura Linney and Milo Parker) look after the home. Mrs. Munro is one of those dangerous people whose very bitter life experiences have left passionate about duty and routine, but less observant of the demands of kindness. Not a stern woman, and certainly never cruel, she is nevertheless mean-spirited, especially when two things happen: her adorable son (Milo Parker has a big career ahead of him) quickly shows aptitude for beekeeping and innate, aristocratic sensitivity to her boss; and, second, Holmes makes the brutal remark to her that it often happens that "extraordinary children are often the product of unremarkable parents."Luckily, "Mr. Holmes" is no repetition of either PBS' "Sherlock," or "Elementary," or the Robert Downey films. It does not exhaust the viewer with its hero's cruel wit. Except for this early and miserable slight, Ian McKellen gives a tour de force performance as a frightened, sometimes terrified, old man whose reason for living eludes but haunts him. It haunts him in the image of a Roaring Twenties-dressed female, a sad-faced woman whom encroaching dementia makes appear to him as real. But do his hallucinations indicate dementia--or a guilty conscience?The extraordinary thing about this stunningly plotted and meticulously developed script is that it remains so true to the "Sherlock Holmes" of legend, while filling in plot holes in other versions of the fictitious detective's life-- plot holes found even in the books. That plot hole will be addressed in an unforgettable flashback scene and addresses head-on the loneliness of a mind as brilliant as his. Loneliness as a huge part of the human *and* Holmesian condition is described in dialogue you'll find yourself reaching for a pen or stylus to transcribe; it is *that* good.Between beekeeping, a very private but frantic search for a cure for his "dementia," and the attempt to finish his "first story" (all the others were written by Dr. Watson), Holmes' mundane reliance on young Roger's innocence and idolatry of him as a father-figure becomes something much MUCH more than a cozy story of a grampa learning to be entertained by a kid's zest for life. At stake in "Mr. Holmes" is the redemptive power of love--and by the word "redemption," I mean salvation in a religious sense. There aren't words to describe how moving, entertaining, and sage this film is. See if it you're old and scared about the future, see it if you're young and scared about the future, see it if you're bitter and scared about the future. As Roger reminds his 93-year-old BFF, he had a 102-year-old uncle. Holmes characteristically tries to one-up Roger: "Ah, but what are the chances you'll know *two* who live to that age?" To which Roger replies: "I didn't really know the other one all that well."This film is a revelation in more ways than one.
bzbee-39855
Never have I seen such an insult to my favorite character, Sherlock Holmes. An absolute nonsense of a movie riding a great name. There should be a criminal case against a director and producers of this disgusting crap. Please never ever see this movie if you have any respect for the detective. I gave a resounding 1 only because 0 is not available. The Movie is just too damn slow. Nothing seems to be happening at all in the entirety of the movie. Music is too awful and it feels like the eternity while I was trying to watch it.Overall, this movie is only good if you are trying to commit suicide or playing a prank on your friend. Or, maybe it should only be played in old homes. Just simply a horrible movie.
