By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
The success of Iron Man did something many in Hollywood thought impossible: it brought Robert Downey Jr’s career back to life. With that success came new opportunities, and the formerly disgraced actor suddenly landed roles in star-studded hits like Tropic Thunder. But he also dazzled in what I feel is his most underrated film: Sherlock Holmes, an unconventional mystery movie just now streaming on Netflix.
Sherlock Holmes doesn’t directly adapt any old Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stories; instead, it delivers a fresh tale that begins with Doctor Watson moving out of Sherlock’s place ahead of the former’s upcoming wedding. But his new life will have to wait because this deductive duo gets caught in a new case involving a foe they thought was six feet under. Solving this mystery may do more than bring Sherlock and Watson back together: it may, in fact, save the entire British Parliament from certain doom.
Thanks to director Guy Ritchie, Sherlock Holmes offers us a very different version of the titular detective. Ritchie made his mark thanks to the success of crime movies like Snatch, and he went on to perfect his action directing skills with the surprisingly sublime The Man From U.N.C.L.E. His Sherlock effectively blends both genres together, giving us a mystery-driven crime movie with the kinetic aesthetics of visceral action cinema.
Ritchie filled Sherlock Holmes with an unforgettable cast, including Jude Law (best known to genre fans for Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow) as Doctor Watson, the stable straight man to Holmes’ quirked-up detective. Rachel McAdams (best known to comedy fans for Mean Girls) plays Irene Adler, a femme fatale who may have gotten in too deep with her mysterious employer. And Mark Strong (best known for Shazam! and Kingsman: The Secret Service) plays Lord Henry Blackwood, a stone-cold killer whose violent appetites are only exceeded by the apparent mystical abilities he uses to threaten the entire country.
Unsurprisingly, though, the best performance in Sherlock Holmes comes from Marvel icon Robert Downey Jr, who gives the title character the perfect combination of urgency and ego. Holmes is smart, and he knows it, but Downey gives the character enough charm that he mostly comes across as confident rather than off-putting, especially in his interactions with Law (their chemistry in this movie is perfect). And Downey is very game for this movie’s relentless physicality, giving us a Holmes who is just as adept at boxing muscular brawlers as he is at analyzing crime scenes.
When Sherlock Holmes came out, the quality of Guy Ritchie’s film and the sheer popularity of Robert Downey Jr. helped this film earn $524 million against a budget of $90 million. That kind of financial success made a sequel inevitable, and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows came out in 2011. It was a very worthy sequel, but the planned third film of this series is now stuck in development hell so deep that even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous detective couldn’t find it.
On Rotten Tomatoes, Sherlock Holmes currently has a critical score of 70 percent. Critics generally noted that Guy Ritchie was a weird choice for adapting this famous literary character, but that the movie is worth it just to see Robert Downey Jr’s magnificent performance. The public agreed, and the film has a 77 percent audience score, indicating just how many average Joes enjoyed the weirdest adaptation of Sherlock Holmes to ever make it to the big screen.
Will Sherlock Holmes win you over with its far-from-elementary performances, or is this one mystery you’d rather not solve? The only way to find out is to grab your favorite deerstalker hat and stream it on Netflix. Afterward, you may want answers to the biggest mystery of all: how Robert Downey Jr. got his English accent so pitch-perfect.
SHERLOCK HOLMES (2009) REVIEW SCORE
