Review: Mr. Holmes

The Sherlock Holmes at the center of director Bill Condon's Mr. Holmes is 93, unsound of body, and slipping into the early stages of short-term memory loss. Aware of his mental deterioration, Holmes (Ian McKellen) has been harvesting royal jelly from his apiary and recently obtained prickly ash from Japan, both herbal remedies he hopes will sharpen his memroy. Holmes seeks completion in his ever more limited time on earth, and he cannot achieve it without putting to paper the facts surrounding his final case, one that was responsible for his withdrawal from his profession and into a self-imposed exile.

Adapted from Mitch Cullin's 2005 novel, A Slight Trick of the Mind, Jeffrey Hatcher's screenplay glides back and forth between three timelines. The first is 1947 as Holmes attempts to bolster his failing memory, struggling to string sentences together to write about that most vexing case involving a certain Ann Kelmot (Hattie Morahan), whose husband Thomas (Patrick Kennedy) came to him all those years ago, seeking the great detective's help to deduce the cause of his wife's odd behaviour. A suspicious music teacher (Frances de la Tour) and a glass armonica, an instrument believed to be of the dark arts, may have put a spell on Ann, who has been emotionally eroded by the deaths of her two children during pregnancy.

Holmes, as is his nature, quickly and clearly assesses the facts but blunders by misunderstanding their meaning. He will make a similar, though less fatal, mistake three decades later during a visit to Japan. Hosted by Mr. Umezaki (Hiroyuki Sanada), whose comportment hints at an uncommon interest in Holmes, they explore the ruins of Hiroshima to acquire the prickly ash.

Life and death and their thin line of separation is one of the themes explored in the film, as is the limitation of truth and the comforting power of fiction. Of course, there is the study of Holmes himself as he confronts the advancing retreat of his logic and reasoning, the very things that make him Sherlock Holmes. Yet he displays a surprising capacity for new understandings and connections, the latter most evident in the bond forged with young Roger (newcomer Milo Parker), the son of his housekeeper Mrs. Munro (Laura Linney). It is Roger who helps him tend to his bees and who inspires him to continue with his writing, his inquisitive presence sparking flashes of memory in Holmes.

Mr. Holmes does not always hold the interest, often sedating rather than enthralling, though it has its moments of satisfaction. The scenes focusing on the Kelton case are arguably the strongest as they have more than a passing commonality with Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, and especially because of the poignantly haunted portrayal by Morahan.

McKellen is typically superb as the fading giant, though do yourself a favour and watch Gods and Monsters, his previous teaming with Condon. That film tackled the themes of aging and mortality and the difficult task of parsing fact from illusion without feeling as enfeebled as the whimpering Mr. Holmes.

Mr. Holmes

Directed by: Bill Condon

Written by: Jeffrey Hatcher; adapted from Mitch Cullin's A Slight Trick of the Mind

Starring: Ian McKellen, Laura Linney, Milo Parker, Hiroyuki Sanada, Hattie Morahan, Patrick Kennedy, Roger Allam, Frances de la Tour