Movie Review - Mr. Holmes

Mr. Holmes (2015)

Starring Ian McKellan, Laura Linney, Milo Parker, Hiroyuki Sanada, Roger Allam, Frances de la Tour, Hattie Morahan, and Phil Davis 

Directed by Bill Condon

Sherlock Holmes (Ian McKellan) has retired to the English countryside in his old age and has hired a housekeeper named Mrs. Munro (Laura Linney) to look after his abode.  Her curious young son Roger (Milo Parker) befriends the rather crotchety Holmes who finds himself now dealing with early-onset dementia as he tries to remember his final case that didn't quite turn out the way the well-known detective had planned.

Unfortunately, Mr. Holmes sounds a lot better in theory than in execution.  Take an aging famous detective, have him solve one final case, and get the fantastic and charming Ian McKellan to play him.  The cards were certainly in director Bill Condon's favor with this one.  The film, however, doesn't quite click, never finding its footing between a mystery, light comedy, and drama.  McKellan is certainly game in the role and the young Milo Parker in his first major film role is charismatic and immensely watchable, but the film is filled with too many genres and unimportant stories meshed together to really work.

It's a bit of shame, quite frankly, because I wanted to really like Mr. Holmes, but I found myself uninterested and rather blasé about the whole affair...which is perhaps why it's taken me more than a month to write this simplistic and utterly basic review about the flick.

The RyMickey Rating:  C