Sherlock Holmes ***

In Guy Ritchie’s version of London’s most famous sleuth, Sherlock Holmes is just as keen, witty, and brilliant as ever, and quite a lot more physical. Robert Downey, Jr. plays him as dry and anti-social, but we like him nonetheless. As the film opens Holmes is en route to breaking a case, aided by his trusty sidekick and physician, Dr. Watson John Watson (Jude Law). They make it on time, preventing Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong) from sacrificing a woman in the dark bowels of nineteenth-century London. A few months later, Watson attends Blackwood’s execution. After the hanging, he checks his pulse. Blackwood’s dead. Holmes hasn’t had a case since.

But a few days later, Blackwood’s tomb is broken open and the groundskeeper of the cemetery swears he sees him walking out. Has he risen from the dead? Holmes is on the case. The film is a classic mystery and detective story with a lot of action thrown about. In one scene, Holmes boxes bare-fisted and bare-chested. As he plans his attack, Ritchie shows each blow in slow motion before unleashing the scene full-speed. It’s quite a lot of fun and effective in showing that the beloved detective is not only brains, though it does help him fight.

As the mystery unravels, we meet Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams), an American woman Holmes has been involved with in the past. She’s in on the plot somehow, but she also seems to want to help him. He tries to reconcile his feelings for her with the case at hand as logically as possible. As Holmes and Watson dig deeper, they continue to discover darker secrets to what exactly is going on and who could be behind it all. Blackwood claimed he was only taking orders, anyway. By the film’s end most of the questions have been answered but not all of the mysteries have been solved. There will no doubt be a sequel.

Sherlock Holmes is Guy Ritchie’s most accessible film by far. He takes a familiar character in a familiar setting with a familiar story, but he also puts his own spin on the tradition. With a stubborn but likeable Downey, Jr. in the titular role and Law playing the affable straight man, the film showcases what’s best about casting good actors in large movies. For the urban historian in me, seeing nineteenth-century London brought to life is always a joy. Sword fight on top of the half-constructed Tower Bridge? Bring it on.