This will neither a book nor a film review be – since I’ve never read a Sherlock Holmes book, and I don’t really feel inspired to review Guy Ritchie’s new film, Sherlock Holmes. That’s not to say I (in fact we) didn’t enjoy the film, we did well enough. It’s just that it didn’t fully captivate us. It’s very stylish, and the cast, particularly Robert Downey Junior, not only did a convincing job but they were great to look at too!
Smoke Pipe (Courtesy: OCAL via clker.com)
Chacun à son goût, as they say. I’ve now seen Bright Star twice. And, I could probably see it again. Some others though find it a little slow. I, on the other hand, felt there was just a little too much “adventure” and skulking round in Sherlock Holmes. It’s pretty predictable…good triumphs over evil, the little twists provide no real shock…but it is fun, and it is nicely made. I would recommend it on that basis – and if you are a Ritchie or Holmes fan, I expect you’ll like it a lot.
I am one of those people who like to sit through the credits. Not only do I like to see the list of music used (and this is always near the end) and the locations, but you never know what you might discover. Sometimes just a name you know, sometimes you are given some extra information, and sometimes the credits are an art-form or entertainment in themselves. Sherlock Holmes falls into this last category. The credits were gorgeous to look at … and I had to laugh when the Costume Designers’ names came up. The image shown alongside their names (Jenny Beavan and Melissa Meister) was the one scene in which Downey (as Holmes) wore nothing but a cushion! For a stylishly recreated period movie, that has to have been intended…and is one of those little jokes that rewards we who sit through the credits.
Whispering Gums 
You are way ahead of me, Sue – prompted by the doco about Jane Campion making Bright Star, I thought it would be nice to post a poem of Keats on my blog, did so, and then checked my RSS feeds.
And now find that you did the same, about three weeks ago – sorry, I didn’t mean to ‘copy’!
(At least our poems are different).
Lisa
Lol Lisa … as they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery so I wouldn’t have minded even if you had copied. In fact, I’m rather sorry to hear now that you didn’t!
And, I didn’t explain but Len and I saw an early preview – through winning tickets via the ABC. I’m on an email list and responded to an item about free tickets to a preview screening. It opened here on Boxing Day and I saw it again when I took my mother and aunt.
I just have to organise myself to go and see it…it’s so easy to loaf in bed with a book till lunchtime…
LOL, I can’t stay in bed that long…though once a week or so I’ll stay in until 9.30 or 10am. After that I really feel I should be up and at’em! Anyhow, do see it – and let me know what you think. Would Tim be interested?
Up-and-at-em is what I do all year long, from 6.00 am, seven days a week because an insomniac has to maintain the routine. But for 6 glorious weeks I turn the alarm off and live like the night owl I truly am.
Yes, Tim will come:) He’s seen all the Austens with me!
Fair enough too … funny thing is that since retirement I’ve stayed the early bird (though not 6am … more 7am) and become more night owlish too. Don’t they say that as you get older you need less sleep?! I think at heart I’m a Mediterranean (even if my ancestry seems mostly English, Welsh and Danish!!). I loved the idea of the siesta (so, when I had kids I was not one of those women who rushed around and did the housework at nap-time but the one who put her feet up too!). I don’t achieve it as regularly now as I would like but when I can I down tools around 3pm, get my book and pretty soon after nod off! Usually only for an hour but enough to charge the batteries.
I still haven’t caught Bright Star, but we saw the Holmes trailer in front of a different movie about a week ago. It looked about sixty per cent banter, thirty per cent punching things and ten per cent Robert Downey Jr taking his shirt off. For ten per cent of this time everybody was in or on the Thames, and for roughly five per cent there was a man in a cape who wanted to do something villainous like rule the world or live forever or lead a coven of other people in capes. (Very brief glimpse of people kneeling around in cloaks or cowls or hoods or shrouds or somesuch in a stone space.) I’ve read Holmes and I like Holmes but I think I’m sticking with the Keats.
You’ve got it about right though I could toy with the percentages! It was a bit like period Batman and Robin on the Thames! It was nicely rendered though. Again let me know what you think of Bright Star.
Okay — sounds worth seeing. I’d been sort of going back and forth between “I like Sherlock Holmes, so I must not see this, as it looks unrelated to the Homes I know” and “I like Robert Downey, Jr., and wouldn’t half mind seeing him in another period flick (not having seen him in a period piece since “Restoration”). Now, with the stamp of approval from whispteringums, I think I shall seek it out, but only to be entertained, and not really expecting Sherlock Holmes. (I have discovered that, if you really like a book, you can still enjoy the movie if you just pretend they’re unrelated.)
Good philosophy. I do the same. They are different forms and it’s a shame, I think, to expect a book to be recreated. Judge each on their own merits I reckon. If you go to Sherlock Holmes with the expectation you’ve expressed, I think you’ll enjoy it.
The credits were a bucket of fun, even if, when I saw it everyone else in the theatre popped out of their seats the minute the movie-proper ended!
Also, surely you can fit in more siestas these days, as you don’t currently have someone in the house pestering you for “Ellen and chocolate” time at 3pm? 😛
I could … and maybe once the Christmas rush dies down I will but somehow the days get filled up even when the “Ellen and chocolate” nag isn’t here!
We are planning to go to see this film on Thursday – its interesting to read your views of it before we go!
Let me know what you think…
Finally saw “Sherlock Holmes.” Other than the names of the characters and a setting in London, it had nothing to do with the books — not just the stories, but even the characters and their relationships. Letting any literary connection go, it was fun eye candy, and there were some clever twists. However, it could have been a bit shorter and might have benefited from a little editing. One thing I did find, well, not exactly annoying, but worthy of a raised eyebrow, as it so clearly showed that the director is assuming no one viewing the movie knows London, was when Irene Adler runs through a few tunnels under Parliament and somehow comes out on top of the Tower Bridge. I don’t think so. But it was a diverting amusement, if not a sizzling cinematic experience.
I think that sums it up well – “eye candy … a diverting amusement”. I’m certainly not sorry I saw it but it wasn’t as you say “a sizzling cinematic experience”.
Didn’t you know London is in the opposite hemisphere, and that therefore gravity works differently there? As in, what goes down, must come up? 😛
‘cept of course waltzingaustralia – despite her name – lives in the same hemisphere as London (in Chicago or up north somewhere I think??) and so your argument may not wash with her. Nice try though!
Yep — Chicago area — far enough out to be equidistant from downtown theaters and verdant wilderness.
That said, I do like the “opposite hemisphere” proposal. Sort of like when George Lucas had to come up with a way that Han Solo’s “under five parsecs” made sense when he was told that a parsec was a unit of distance and not of time.
Thought that, if you were at all interested in the “real” Holmes, but not particularly keen on reading the books, I’d not that the BBC series with Jeremy Brett was spot on in its rendering of the brilliant and fastidious Holmes, as well as in its presentation of the slightly older but generally awed Dr. Watson. It ran for 10 years and is considered the definitive version, so you might find that a library has it.
For a movie version that comes pretty close, Christopher Plummer and James Mason made a good pairing in “Murder by Decree.” Almost as good as the Jeremy Brett version, but Plummer is not quite as twitchy as Holmes/Brett.
Thanks for those Holmes suggestions because you are right, there are so many books to read that I would not really give reading Holmes priority over other things BUT I would like to have a better understanding. I shall note your recommendations…thankyou. Plummer and Mason would be a good pair.