Mr. Holmes Review

In the world of literature and sleuthing, Sherlock Holmes is a legend.

In 2006, author Mitch Cullin, wrote what can be boiled down to a professional fanfiction in A Slight Trick Of The Mind.

The new film, Mr. Holmes, is based on Mr. Cullin’s novel.

In the late 1940’s Sherlock Holmes (Ian McKellen) is 93 years old. Retired from detective work, he is content to live near the sea and enjoy his final years. His housekeeper, Mrs. Munro (Laura Linney) is a war widow with a precocious and curious son, Roger (Milo Parker).  Roger develops a father/son like relationship with his mother’s boss, in spite of his mother’s fears. Roger also helps Sherlock to remember the case that ended his career.

Thirty years before, Sherlock was approached by Thomas Kelmot (Patrick Kennedy). His wife, Ann (Hattie Morahan) has changed since her two miscarriages. He wants Sherlock to follow his wife and figure out why Ann is not the woman that she was. Can Roger help Sherlock to remember the case and maintain his faculties as long as he can?

I was excited to see this movie. Sherlock Holmes is a character that is very much a fabric of our culture. But more often than not,  he is seen in his younger days, not as a man who knows that the clock is ticking. To be honest, the movie was a little slow for me. While I enjoyed the relationships between the characters and the marked different between the two periods in Holmes’s life that the film explores, it was not what I hoped it would be.

Do I recommend? Maybe.

Mr. Holmes is currently playing in theaters. 

Advertisement

Throwback Thursday-Jim Carrey Attempts To Be A Serious Actor-The Truman Show (1998) & The Majestic (2001)

Jim Carrey is known for a certain style of acting. That type of acting is not known to be serious or dramatic. That does not mean he has tried.

In 1998, he starred in The Truman Show. Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey) thinks that he lives an average life. He is married to Meryl (Laura Linney) and has a successful career in the insurance industry. But what he doesn’t know is that he is the subject of a decades long reality show where everyone else around him are paid actors. When does find out, he does everything in his power to escape the facade that is his life.

I genuinely like this movie. Carrey as Truman is a very honest, believable character.  The movie also is an interesting statement on what was then the burgeoning reality TV genre.

Two years later, he tried an aww shucks, Jimmy Stewart type of role in The Majestic. Peter Appleton (Jim Carrey) is writer blacklisted in Hollywood in 1951. He looses his memory in a car accident and ends up in a small town where the denizens that he is believed to be a member of the community that was thought to be missing or dead.

This movie is a throwback to classic Hollywood. It’s simple and sweet, but slightly on the boring side.

If I was to recommend one, I would recommend The Truman Show.

House Of Mirth Review

Edith Wharton‘s 1905 novel, The House  Of Mirth is about the tradition and contradictions in early 20th century New York.

The 2000 film adaptation of the novel stars Gillian Anderson as Lily Bart. She is the star of the social scene, but foolish when it comes to financial matters. She turns down several marriage offers and has a will they or wont they flirtation with Lawrence Selden (Eric Stoltz). When she innocently accepts money from Gus Trenor (Dan Akroyd), who is married to her best friend Judy (Penny Downie), her social standing begins to fall.

I saw this movie for the first time last night and though I have yet to read the book, I will do so shortly.  Edith Wharton, in this novel is a feminist. She writes about upper class women, who in the early 20th century were expected to marry. Education beyond a certain point and a career was out of the question. Lily is unmarried; a woman’s reputation or lack there of, especially a unmarried woman’s reputation at that time could be her best friend or her worst enemy. Anderson who is best known for her role as Dana Scully on the X-Files, completely breaks with the iconic sci-fi character to play a woman whose life spirals out of control.

The supporting cast includes Jodhi May, Elizabeth McGovern, Laura Linney and Anthony LaPaglia.

I highly recommend this movie.

Hyde Park On Hudson Review

Hyde Park on Hudson is an interesting movie. It tells the story of the weekend in 1939 when the King And Queen Of England visit Franklin Delano Roosevelt and in a way, is an unofficial sequel to The Kings Speech.

Daisy (Laura Linney) is a distant cousin to Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Bill Murray) and is invited to keep him company. They soon embark on an affair.

With the war in Europe become a bigger issue every day, the King and Queen Of England (Samuel West & Olivia Coleman)  come to visit and persuade FDR to get invoved in the war.

The movie is a slow burn, but its certainly a different, especially for Bill Murray.

I forsee Oscar nominations for this movie.