Robert Downey Jr. in a movie ensures one thing – that he would do full justice with his role. With this faith in Robert Downey Jr. I went to watch Sherlock Holmes. Thankfully he didn’t let me down. The move is a full entertainer. Its around 2 hours long and it ensures that you are entertained through witty jokes, funny situations or a mystery that tries too hard to be engaging. In the end the audience doesn’t care about the mystery (which is too predictable) and takes away the feeling of fun and entertainment. This movie is in no way a Sherlock Holmes, a reader of Arthur Canon Doyle’s work would expect. Instead he is tough, eccentric, a street fighter kind of character. If you accept this design of Sherlock Holmes the movie is perfectly acceptable. Jude Law gives a good performance as Dr. Watson. The chemistry between Holmes and Watson is so very visible on screen. Hats off to Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law for giving such a performance. Rachel McAdams as the leading lady looks good but her character is sketchily written. If her characterization could have been better it would have enhanced the entire movie a little more.Credit also should be given to the good direction of Guy Ritchie. Whenever Guy Ritchie is around you should not expect something conventional and here he has given us a completely different type of Sherlock Holmes. The scenes are cleverly shown. Watch out for the slow motion fight scenes which Holmes plan in his mind and then executes them perfectly in normal speed. The only complaint I have is that the unraveling of mystery could have been done at a more detailed level by spending more time on it, but in the end everything fits just fine.
Mention also should be done of amazing cinematography, it seems you are back in the 1800s. Small details like the repeated showing of 221b, Baker Street is heartening for Sherlock Holmes fans like me. End credits are shown in a novel way, usually people in India starts to step out of the theater as soon as the end credits start, for the first time I saw people in India seeing end credits, all credit to the innovative displays used.
The background music is excellent. As soon as I heard the music I guessed it could have been only of Hans Zimmer. The theme of lead characters somewhere reminded me of another eerie character of our times Jack Sparrow, which was incidentally composed by Zimmer. Except this similarity with his previous works Hans Zimmer has done a really good job. The variety displayed is amazing, on the one hand the adrenalin pumped by his background score in some action sequences is amazing, on the other hand the eerie theme of Holmes sets up the tone for humor in some scenes. Hans Zimmer is not the best composer of current times for nothing, in this movie he displays his class.
Overall I will rate this movie somewhere between good and very good. If you are one of those who like action movies and can accept Holmes in his new Avatar then you will like it very much. Watch this movie and don’t look for flaws, just treat it as an enjoyable ride and you will be easily satisfied. A sequel is on the way, lets’ hope they don’t repeat the small mistakes done in this one and come up with an even better movie.
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