SHERLOCK HOLMES

Director: Guy Ritchie
Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Rachel McAdams, Mark Strong, Eddie Marsan, Han Matheson
Year: 2009
Rating: PG-13

Like many people, I grew up weaned on the Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes, with Nigel Bruce as his beleaguered sidekick Dr. John H. Watson. In fourteen films these two made together for Universal, to me Rathbone personified the brilliant, fastidious, analytical, and somewhat egocentric Holmes to perfection - over and over again, as I still watch and love the films to this day. Having spent a summer in Minnesota, as young teen, even reading many of the stories Sir Arthur Conan Doyle penned about what, arguably, has come to be the most famous fictional detective in world, it's still the Holmes that Rathbone personified, for me, that has remained over the years in my memory - and still brings warmth to my heart, whenever I watch films like The Pearl of Death, Sherlock Holmes and the Spider Woman, or The Scarlet Claw.

So when the trailers started appearing, last year, for Guy Ritchie's film version of the master detective's story - complete with Robert Downey Jr. in the titular role - at first I was downright irritated by the appeared to be the humor element in the film's trailers. Mind you, Without a Clue - the 1988 comedy featuring Ben Kingsley as the brilliant Dr. Watson, who hires an inept and drunken stage actor (Michael Caine) to play Holmes when his stories about the fictional detective grow so popular, he has no choice but to produce the man himself - is also a favorite of mine, and a very funny film.

But that film was marketed as an over-the-top comedy, whereas Ritchie's Holmes was supposed to stick more closely to the original character; to be a true rendering of the character for the new age, so to speak. The scene in the trailer, where Downey is nude and handcuffed to a bed (shocking the hell out of a poor, unsuspecting chambermaid who enters the room), seemed to me the biggest insult of all to Holmes, and at first I was determined to not even see the film.

What all this build-up is leading to is one simple thing: a humble apology. Because Sherlock Holmes is a film imbued with energy, drama, action, adventure, suspense, fun ... and a true love for the original character, AS created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and played to perfection by an astonishing Robert Downey Jr.

Set in a Victorian London rendered beautifully by Ritchie, the story and mood of the film is set immediately by an action-packed opening scene that has Holmes, Watson and the police finally capturing the infamous Lord Blackwood (in a perfectly menacing performance by Mark Strong), a murderer and practitioner of the occult who, before being hanged for his crimes, promises Holmes he will not only come back to life and pursue his crime spree ... but will also enact a scheme that will forever change the world, and bend it to his will. He warns Holmes that death will only be the beginning for him, and the end for society as it stands now - and, sure enough, soon after Blackwood's internment his tomb is found busted open (seemingly from the inside), and the body of another is found in his casket. Blackwood, seemingly back from the dead and now unstoppable, has only to contend with the formidable team of Sherlock Holmes (Downey) and Dr. Watson (Jude Law) - who are determined to get to the bottom of things, and save all of England (and the world) from Blackwood's complex and evil plan.

The film (and especially Downey's brilliant performance) was a real reminder of the eccentricity of Holmes' character ... as written by Conan Doyle, which is the thing to remember most when watching this film. Holmes' eccentricities - his sarcasm and caustic wit, his preponderance for picking on/belittling landlady Mrs. Hudson, as well as Watson - even his penchant for fisticuffs or occasional lapse of personal hygiene; all were components of Holmes' character in the original stories and novels, and all are brought vividly and amazingly to life in what turns out to be one of the best performances of Downey's career. Similarly, Jude Law infuses Watson with a terrific, multi-layered persona that turns him into a flesh-and-blood best friend to Sherlock Holmes, even as he is sometimes barely able to tolerate Holmes, or indeed Holmes' treatment of his soon-to-be wife. Here, Watson is a fighter and hero, lover and gambler, roguish yet full of propriety. And always, always Holmes' good friend and companion.

Rachel McAdams, in an excellent supporting role, plays Irene Adler - the only woman to have ever bested Holmes, let alone play with the affections of his heart. Here Adler has her own agenda in hiring Holmes to find a man who has deep ties indeed to the Blackwood case, and the somewhat romantic yet potentially lethal relationship between Holmes and Adler is played up here in a way that both moves the story along, while at the same time providing a bit of comic relief in the middle of all the drama.

And drama we have, in what turns into a complicated and rousing thriller set in a London where the Tower Bridge is just starting construction - a setting that is used brilliantly for the final climactic scene of the film. Whether infuriating Watson, beating up a suspect, expounding his brilliant deductions based on the smallest of observed facts, or even besting Inspector Lestrade (Eddie Marsan, also excellent here), Sherlock Holmes is Guy Ritchie's love letter to the famous (and infamous) private detective - a great thriller with a complex story (complex enough, if you're not paying attention to what's going on, you might easily lose your way), wonderfully-drawn characters, brilliant action sequences ... and all of it set in a grimy, gray London perfectly rendered and brought to life. I thought I had learned, long ago, to never judge a film by its trailer - but this one's cured me of that misconception for good. Sherlock Holmes and Robert Downey Jr. are both a real treat; one of the better films I've seen lately, and truly worthy of the sequel sure to come. ****1/2 - Reel Awesome-Reel Must-See