Elementary

This is the second film representation of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes I have seen. The first was helmed by one of my favorite directors Billy Wilder when he made The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes in 1970. Despite it being a Wilder movie, I felt it didn't have the wit or speed that would fit the renowned detective or the wit or speed that Wilder himself had become famous for. Now we have Sherlock Holmes (2009) directed by the famously fast and witty Guy Richie, who's cult classics Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch are fun and fast past, a style I could see working well for a movie such as Holmes. However where Wilder failed to deliver with pacing, Richie failed to deliver with character and story.

When I think of the character of Sherlock Holmes I think of a troubled man that is to smart for his own good. You get that here to an extent but what doesn't work is that I never felt worried or anxious for him, I always new he would figure out how to get out of any tough situation. It took the mystery away, and mystery is what makes Holmes such a great character. Maybe part of the problem was Richie though he would just cast the great Robert Downey Jr. and he would bring all the charm and Wit needed that the script lacked. Downey did his damnedest and was fun to watch but couldn't elevate the banality of the story.

Richie's stylistic and for lack of a better word "cool" direction really hurt this story because he jumped around to much, it tried to be to showy and never let the story breathe. I want a Holmes detective story where I am on the edge of my seat, where I don't know where it is, or where its going. With Sherlock Holmes the spectacle is all you get. I didn't care about the villain played by the snarly Andy Garcia look alike Mark Strong. Rachel Mcadams role as the femme fatal was shallow and nearly pointless. Jude Law served the story fine as Watson.

So for me Sherlock Holmes does not deliver and there has yet to be a Holmes movie that I have seen that has. This film needed a little less style and a little more substance and that scene in the trailer with Mcadams in some sexy dress (it wasn't in the film).

**1/2