Young Sherlock Holmes

Young Sherlock Holmes

The Plot:  When John Watson arrives at Brompton Academy, he's eager to get into the routine of things and continue studying for his medical career--the last thing he wants is to get in trouble.  But after befriending Sherlock Holmes, an eccentric fellow student, John finds himself up to his neck in adventure as they attempt to find the perpetrator behind four horrific murders.  Along the way, Sherlock finds love, John finds courage, and they both find enemies where they least expected them.

Thoughts:  We see a very different Holmes in this film than is usually portrayed.  His talents are faulty, he has a crush on a girl, and he's got angst problems.  Sounds pathetic?  Well, it actually works, because this film is mostly about how Holmes becomes the tough, stoic, genius guy we all know him to be.  Personally, I think he became that way without any life-changing events; but this movie takes the opposite approach, and it definitely makes for an interesting story.  Nicholas Rowe was great in the role, and he looks pretty Holmesian, too. 

Watson is...well, Watson, except that he's about thirteen years old.  He seems a little young to be grumbling like a middle-aged man, and he keeps bemoaning his future medical career as if he's 18 already.  However, I thought he was true to the character, overall.

Elizabeth was all right.  She wasn't the cliched action-character "heroine" that is so common these days; she was slightly more traditional.  I guess because of that, and because Holmes is so different in this version, I didn't mind the romantic subplot too much.

The Moriarty character was very well done.  He was really well-cast, too; he had as much "stage presence" as Sherlock, if not more.  He's also probably the handsomest Moriarty ever.  =P

Lestrade and the other minor characters were written too cartoonishly, IMO.  Especially the eccentric professor--he doesn't act much like a genius, and it's hard to understand why Holmes admired him as much as he did.  This reminds me of the portrayal of Watson and Lestrade in the Rathbone series; they were written as very silly characters to make Holmes look smarter.  Unfortunate.

My biggest problem with this movie was the plot.  It was more action/adventure focused, and not the brainiac mystery-solving one would hope for.  It didn't help the portrayal of Holmes, either.  Now, the action/adventure approach might have been fine in the end, but the stakes were so high that the action was only entertaining some of the time.  The mystery itself, apart from the action, was also extremely unlikely and hard to take seriously.  Frankly, I watched this movie for the subplots and portrayal of Holmes, Watson, and their life at school--not for the mystery.

Another thing that bugged me was the tone.  The ending is really sad; but the whole movie (including the ending) has a happy-adventure tinge to it, which detracts from the plot.  As a result, the characters almost come across as callous--which they aren't.  One scene in particular that was really weird was the duel.  Its relative placement in the film was awkward, and it seemed silly and selfish.  Again, I don't think it was meant to come across that way, but it did, and it wasn't good for the character consistency/portrayal. 

There was some bad language/profanity and some scary scenes, which I mostly fast-forwarded. I think content-wise it's on par with the Jeremy Brett series, and some of the Rathbone episodes.  Not a kid's movie though.

It was a pretty interesting fantasy movie and well-worth watching if you want to see what Holmes's school days might have been like--that's what I liked best about it.  The music's wonderfully catchy, the sets are cool, and there's some great moments ("I never want to be alone").  3.5 out of 5 stars.