It’s elementary, my dear readers. You take one washed-up Mockney film director, one irrepressibly charming actor and a story that’s been told so many times it’s in the Guinness Book of Records. The result: surprisingly good. The stylistic overkill and London grime of Lock, Stock and its ilk translate well to an action flick template; reined in by box office convention, the result is fast-paced and tongue-in-cheek, more coherent than anything in Ritchie’s recent Kabbalistic back-catalogue. Holmes’ London is a steampunk dream, a mud-coloured, industrial landscape populated by opium fiends, necromancers, street harlots and a worrying number of Irish buffoons. Ritchie casts the detective as part dandy in the underworld, part kung-fu cartoon superhero; a charmer, a scientist, a bare-knuckle boxer and a dab hand with the nun-chucks. Rachel MacAdams fits the corset convincingly as Holmes’ nemesis and erstwhile lover Irene Adler, while Jude Law plays the straightman, surprisingly likeable as Watson. The plot loses track of itself towards the end, remembering it’s a blockbuster and going out with a blast of CGI gun-powder, but Ritchie remains largely respectful to its pipe-smoking myth, producing an enjoyable homage which leaves some of the mystery intact.
Words: RoisÃn Kiberd
