Slight Is Alright

Sherlock Holmes (2009)
directed by Guy Ritchie
rating: 2 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Carnegie Library

I like Guy Ritchie more with each new picture. His iterations of Holmes and Watson might not be new, and the homoeroticism between them is as obvious in the stories as the film. And yes, there are several too many blue screen feats. But when you think about it, isn't the eponymous hero better suited for a BBC series than a Christmas blockbuster? And shouldn't Ritchie get credit for using Victorian England as an excuse to try out his latest shot of a punch in slow motion? Past adaptations appealed to closeted Anglophiles for the same reason fog and murdered prostitutes do, but Ritchie, Brit though he is, mostly sets his set designers to work on imagining the symbols of dry and dusty Egypt. Jude Law is really more of a caricature of a Royal Subject than a great actor, and Robert Downey, Jr., wherever he wanders, is squarely and always an American.

I'm arguing, I guess, that Ritchie gives us a Sherlock by way of the US of A, a sort of roundabout iteration of a character we already know and love. I mean, I can't argue in favor of the "toy box" approach to comic book franchises and not get behind Sherlock Holmes, right? I love Sherlock Jr. and The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes and Basil Rathbone as much as the next guy. Some folks thought Sherlock Holmes wasn't fun enough, and they're right, too. But it wasn't bad.