The incredible "Mr. Holmes"

Sherlock Holmes is one of the rare fictional characters who has become so recognized and beloved that he feels utterly real. Holmes has been portrayed on the page, screen, stage and airwaves countless times over the past 128 years - in the past 5 years alone there have been 2 very successful movies and a extremely popular almost-4-season TV show focused on the brilliant yet antisocial detective. We know the character. We love the character. And in the new film "Mr. Holmes" we get to know a version of him that is more vulnerable and real than ever before.

 

Ian McKellen brilliantly brings the fictitious character we know and love to life and places him firmly in reality. This is a lovely and heartbreaking "what if" tale. What if Sherlock Holmes was real? What if he, and his brother Mycroft, and his housekeeper Mrs. Hudson, and his dear friend Dr. Watson were all very human but also very embellished and exaggerated in the stories that Dr. Watson loved to write? What if Holmes spent his life battling the fictionalized glamour that surrounded him? What if he grew old and retired to the English countryside in the post-war 1940's? 

The pace is not quick nor the action thrilling, but this film is beautiful, thoughtful and engaging. The story moves back and forth between retired, 94-year-old Holmes and somewhat younger, still-employed Holmes. Retired Holmes is humbler than we have ever seen him before, struggling with a fading memory and unfocused mind. He is desperate to remember his final case, the one that forced him into retirement, but the memories are fleeting and faint. Aided by his housekeeper's young, inquisitive son Roger, Holmes begins to piece together the mystery of his past. Young Roger unabashedly admires the retired genius but Holmes is clueless when it comes to returning his (or anyone's) affection, struggling to let true emotion shine through his standoffish shell. 

"Mr. Holmes" tells the story of the detective with all the answers who realizes he may not always understand the question. For the first time in his life Holmes realizes how deeply one person's life can affect another, and how much of an influence he's had on people, intentionally or otherwise. In the end he learns how to love and how to mourn. He accepts that human nature is intricately complex and that he cannot, in fact, always have the answer. And because of that, he gains peace.

 

My 15-year-old sister saw the movie with me and cried silent tears through the entire second half, still wiping them away as we walked from the theater. This story has been told before: a man struggling come to terms with his life, his losses, and his future. But this is not just any man. This is Mr. Sherlock Holmes.