In 1890 London, private detective Sherlock Holmes and his partner Dr. John Watson prevent the ritualistic murder of a woman by Lord Henry Blackwood, who has killed five women. Inspector Lestrade and the police arrest Blackwood. Two months later, Watson, engaged to Mary Morstan, is moving out of 221B Baker Street; he looks forward to not having to deal with Holmes' eccentricities. Blackwood, who claims to have supernatural powers, is sentenced to death by hanging but not before he requests to see Holmes, warning him of three more unstoppable deaths that will cause great changes to the world.
Holmes is visited by former adversary Irene Adler, who asks him to find a missing man named Luke Reordan. After her departure, Holmes follows her as she meets with her secret employer, deducing that the man is a professor and that he intimidates Adler. Meanwhile, a sighting of a living Blackwood and his tomb destroyed from the inside out lead to belief Blackwood has risen from the grave. Reordan is found dead inside Blackwood's coffin. Following a series of clues from the body, Holmes and Watson find Reordan's hideout and discover experiments attempting to merge science with magic. After Holmes and Watson survive a battle with Blackwood's men when the latter try to torch the lab, Holmes is taken to the Temple of the Four Orders, a secret magical fraternity with considerable political influence. The leaders — Lord Chief Justice Sir Thomas Rotheram, U.S. Ambassador Standish, and Home Secretary Lord Coward — ask Holmes to stop Blackwood, a former member of the society and Sir Thomas' secret illegitimate son.
That night, Sir Thomas drowns in his bath as Blackwood watches, and the next night Lord Coward calls a meeting of the Order where he nominates Blackwood to take command in place of Sir Thomas. Blackwood reveals to the group his intention to seize control of the British Empire and reconquer the United States. Standish tries to shoot Blackwood but bursts into flames when he pulls the trigger of his gun, falling out a window to his death. Coward issues an arrest warrant for Holmes, causing him to go into hiding. Holmes studies the rituals of the Order and recognizes their symbols in Blackwood's staging of the murders; from this, he deduces that the targets of the final murder are every elected member of Parliament. With the aid of Lestrade, Holmes fakes his arrest and is taken to see Coward, where he observes evidence on Coward's clothes to deduce Blackwood has conducted a ceremony in the sewers beneath the Palace of Westminster. Holmes escapes.
Holmes, Watson and Adler find Blackwood's men in the sewers guarding a device based on Reordan's experiments, designed to release cyanide gas into the Parliament chambers and kill all but Blackwood's supporters, to whom he has secretly given an antidote. Blackwood comes before Parliament and announces their impending deaths, then attempts to activate the cyanide device by remote control; Adler is able to deactivate it with a controlled explosion. Coward is apprehended as Blackwood flees Parliament. Holmes chases Adler, who has taken canisters of cyanide from the device, through the sewers, to the top of the incomplete Tower Bridge where they are confronted by Blackwood. Blackwood fights Adler and forces her off the bridge into the river, taking the canisters from her. He and Holmes then fight, as the latter reveals he has deduced how all of Blackwood's supposed supernatural feats were merely the work of science and trickery. Tangled in ropes, Blackwood plummets off the bridge, and is hanged by the chains. Adler has landed on a scaffolding platform and tells Holmes that her employer is Professor Moriarty, and that the professor is not to be underestimated.
As Watson moves out of 221B, a police constable reports to Holmes that a dead officer was found near Blackwood's device. Moriarty used the confrontations with Adler and Blackwood as a diversion while he took a key component, based on the infant science of radio, from the machine. Holmes considers the case reopened.
Cast
McAdams and Downey Jr. at a panel to promote the film at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con
Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes, a bohemian scientist and eccentric detective-for-hire who becomes a wanted fugitive in his hunt for Lord Blackwood while constantly being followed by the presence of Professor Moriarty. Downey was visiting Joel Silver's offices with his wife, producer Susan Downey, when he learned about the project.[4] Ritchie initially felt Downey was too old for the role because he wanted the film to show a younger Holmes on a learning curve like Batman Begins.[5] Ritchie decided to take a chance on casting him in the role, and Downey told the BBC that "I think me and Guy are well-suited to working together. The more I look into the books, the more fantastic it becomes. Holmes is such a weirdo".[6] Downey also revealed what his wife had to say: "that when you read the description of the guy — quirky and kind of nuts — it could be a description of me".[7] Downey intended to focus more on Holmes' patriotic side and his bohemianism, and felt that his work on Chaplin had prepared him for an English accent.[8] Ritchie feels his accent is "flawless".[9] Both Downey and Ritchie are martial arts enthusiasts, and have been inspired by the Baritsu mentioned in the 1901 story The Adventure of the Empty House.[10] Downey lost weight for the part, because during a chat he had with Chris Martin, Martin recommended that Holmes look "gaunt" and "skinny".[11][12]
Jude Law as Dr. John Watson, Holmes' companion and close friend who is also a surgeon and a veteran of the Second Afghan War. Law's Watson is more like the original character, who was more of a colleague, rather than the bumbling fool that actor Nigel Bruce popularised in the 1930s–40s films.[13] Law previously appeared in the Granada Television series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, in an episode based on The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place. Being a Holmes fan, Law recognised there was material unexplored in other adaptations and was intrigued by Downey's casting; Law was cast because he had a positive meeting with Downey and concurred the film would have to explore Holmes and Watson's friendship. Downey believed by emphasizing Watson's qualities as a former soldier, a doctor, a womanizer and a gambler, it would make for a more interesting foil for Holmes.[14] Law made a notebook of phrases from the stories to improvise into his dialogue.[15] Ritchie originally envisioned Russell Crowe in the role.[16]
Mark Strong as Lord Henry Blackwood, an aristocraticserial killer dabbling in the occult to compel others to do his bidding. Having returned after his execution, Blackwood concocts a plan to gain control of Britain. He is given many seemingly supernatural elements to his character, and his presence is usually accompanied by a menacing crow. Strong worked with director Ritchie for the third time and said he appreciates the director's lack of ego and how easy he is to work with.[17][18]
Rachel McAdams as Irene Adler, an American femme fatale from New Jersey who outwitted Holmes twice, as chronicled in Doyle's story A Scandal in Bohemia.[13] The film considerably departs from Doyle's original, where Holmes never met Adler again after the one occasion where she outwitted (and greatly impressed) him. In the film, Adler, a skilled professional thief, as well as a divorcée, needs Holmes' help to find a missing man named Luke Reordan.[14] Downey convinced Ritchie to cast McAdams, arguing she would not look too young to be his love interest.[19] McAdams welcomed the opportunity to play a character who is "her own boss and a real free spirit".[20] Adler and Holmes are depicted as having a deep and mutual infatuation, even while she is employed by Professor Moriarty.
Eddie Marsan as Inspector Lestrade, an investigator from Scotland Yard who hires Holmes to look into the murders. Unlike in many previous adaptations, Lestrade is not portrayed as a bumbling inspector, but is shown to be a rather competent officer (though he is relatively fed up with Holmes).[21]
Hans Matheson as Lord Coward, the Home Secretary who is Blackwood's right-hand man and assisted Blackwood in all his murders and was one of the few of his allies aware of Blackwood's usage of technology to feign magical powers.
A lot of the action that Conan Doyle refers to was actually made manifest in our film. Very often, Sherlock Holmes will say things like, "If I hadn't been such an expert short [single] stick person, I would have died in that" or he would refer to a fight off screen. We're putting those fights on screen.
Producer Lionel Wigram remarked that for around ten years, he had been thinking of new ways to depict Sherlock Holmes. "I realized the images I was seeing in my head [when reading the stories] were different to the images I'd seen in previous films." He imagined "a much more modern, more bohemian character, who dresses more like an artist or a poet", namely Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. After leaving his position as executive for Warner Bros. in 2006,[5] Wigram sought a larger scope to the story so it could attract a large audience, and amalgamated various Holmes stories to flesh it out further.[7] Some sequences in the movie were more than suggested by uncredited incidents found in a 1979 novel Enter the Lion: A Posthumous Memoir of Mycroft Holmes. Lord Blackwood's character was developed as a nod to Victorian interests in spiritualism and the later influence of Aleister Crowley.[25] The producer felt he was "almost clever" pitting Holmes, who has an almost supernatural ability to solve crimes, against a supposedly supernatural villain. The plot point, moreover, nods to the Holmesian tale of The Hound of the Baskervilles, where a string of seemingly supernatural events is finally explained through intuitive reasoning and scientific savvy. Wigram wrote and John Watkiss drew a 25-page comic book about Holmes in place of a spec script.[25]
Professor Moriarty was included in the script to set up the sequels.[26]
In March 2007, Warner Bros. chose to produce, seeing similarities in the concept with Batman Begins. Arthur Conan Doyle's estate had some involvement in sorting out legal issues, although the stories are in the public domain in the United States.[citation needed]Neil Marshall was set to direct,[27] but Guy Ritchie signed on to direct in June 2008.[28] When a child at boarding school, Ritchie and other pupils listened to the Holmes stories through dormitory loudspeakers. "Holmes used to talk me to sleep every night when I was seven years old," he said.[29] Therefore, his image of Holmes differed from the films. He wanted to make his film more "authentic" to Doyle,[8] explaining, "There's quite a lot of intense action sequences in the stories, [and] sometimes that hasn't been reflected in the movies."[30] Holmes' "brilliance will percolate into the action", and the film will show that his "intellect was as much of a curse as it was a blessing".[9] Ritchie sought to make Sherlock Holmes a "very contemporary film as far as the tone and texture", because it has been "a relatively long time since there's been a film version that people embraced".[30]
Filming
The Dean's Staircase at St. Paul's Cathedral was used for the opening sequence of the film.
Filming was conducted in Manchester's Northern Quarter. Manchester Town Hall was extensively used for numerous scenes with some minor CGI modifications. The interior courtyard was used for a fight scene, the Great Hall doubled as the House of Lords and numerous areas such as the landing were used as a backdrop.[33]
In late November 2008, actor Robert Maillet, who played Dredger, was filming a fight scene at Chatham Dockyard in Kent, and accidentally punched Robert Downey Jr. in the face, causing Downey to be bloodied and knocked down, but not knocked unconscious as originally reported.[22]
When filming at St John's Street in December, the schedule had to be shortened from 13 to nine days because locals complained about how they would always have to park cars elsewhere during the shoot.[38]
In January 2009, filming moved to Brooklyn.[39]
Ritchie wanted his Holmes' costume to play against the popular image of the character, joking "there is only one person in history who ever wore a deerstalker". Downey selected the character's hat, a beat-up fedora. The director kept to the tradition of making Holmes and Watson's apartment quite messy, and had it decorated with artifacts and scientific objects from the continents they would have visited.[16]
The soundtrack for the film was composed by Hans Zimmer. It was released on 12 January 2010.[40] Zimmer purchased an out-of-tune piano for 200 dollars and used it throughout the scoring process because of its "quirkiness".[41]
Distribution
The film had its world premiere on 14 December 2009, in London and was subsequently released worldwide on 25 December 2009 (26 December, Boxing Day in the UK and Ireland), after being pushed from a November release date.[42]
An advance charity screening was held in select locations in Belgium on 10 December 2009.[43]
Home media
Sherlock Holmes was released on DVD and Blu-ray/DVD/digital on 30 March 2010 in the United States.[44] The film has since grossed $44,908,336 in DVD sales.[45]
Reception
Box office
The film opened to an estimated $62.4 million in its first weekend in America alone, placing in second at the US box office to Avatar, which grossed $75.6 million. The film earned a strong per-theater average of $18,031 from its 3,626 theaters. Its one-day Christmas sales broke records. Sherlock Holmes grossed $209 million in North America and $524 million worldwide,[2] making it Guy Ritchie's biggest box-office success at the time; it has since been surpassed by Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and Aladdin.[46] It was also the 8th highest grossing film of 2009 worldwide, and domestically. On the domestic charts, it is the sixth highest-grossing film to never hit No. 1 in the weekend box office, behind Sing, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, that film's 2007 predecessor, and A Star Is Born.[47]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 70% based on 250 reviews, with a rating average of 6.25/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Guy Ritchie's directorial style might not be quite the best fit for an update on the legendary detective, but Sherlock Holmes benefits from the elementary appeal of a strong performance by Robert Downey, Jr."[48] On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average to reviews, the film has a score of 57 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[49] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.[50]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three out of four stars and highlighted the film's strong characters, visuals and action-packed plot;[51] the characters were also praised by Jake Tomlinson of Shave Magazine, who believed that Downey Jr. and Law were "perfect together" and that Strong was "a convincing and creepy villain".[52]
A. O. Scott of the New York Times noted that the director's approach to films was "to make cool movies about cool guys with cool stuff" and that Sherlock Holmes was essentially "a series of poses and stunts" which was "intermittently diverting" at best.[53]
David Stratton of The Australian disliked the film's interpretation of the original Holmes stories and concluded, "The makers of this film are mainly interested in action; that, they believe, is all that gets young audiences into cinemas today. They may be right, but they have ridden roughshod over one of literature's greatest creations in the process." Despite this, he praised the production design and score.[54]
Some commentators criticised elements of the script such as the representation of Irene Adler, with Todd McCarthy of Variety feeling her character was "not very well integrated into the rest of the story, a shortcoming the normally resourceful McAdams is unable to do much about".[55] Like McCarthy, Scott is critical of Adler's character, stating, "Ms.McAdams is a perfectly charming actress and performs gamely as the third wheel of this action-bromance tricycle. But Irene feels in this movie more like a somewhat cynical commercial contrivance. She offers a little something for the ladies and also something for the lads, who, much as they may dig fights and explosions and guns and chases, also like girls."[56]
Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman found the film "both fun and numb, enjoyable and exhausting", finding Strong's character one-dimensional, and McAdams "enticing in such a sweet Victorian way that it seems perverse for the movie to muffle the romantic spark between her and our hero." He felt that the film could have been better "if it had been an origin story, with Holmes discovering his lightning powers of intuition".[57]
Empire film critic William Thomas gave the film three out of five stars, praising Downey and Law's chemisty, but felt McAdams was underused, that "occasional bits featuring a farty comedy dog" were not funny and that "the narrative is simply too simplistic", but overall called it, "fun, action-packed".[58]
Catherine Shoard of The Guardian felt the film "baffles in all the wrong ways" and "what a curious way to do it".[59] Jamie Rich gave the film one and a half stars out of five, was unimpressed with the casting, particularly McAdams, Ritche's direction and called the film "proof that you can throw as much money as you want toward making a blockbuster, but you still can't create true talent where there is only a soulless approximation of the same."[60]
The sequel, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, with Downey and Law returning, was released on 16 December 2011.[61] A third film is currently in development hell, with Downey and Law again reprising their roles, Dexter Fletcher replacing Ritchie as director, and Chris Brancato writing the script.[3] Two television series set in the universe of the films are in development for HBO Max.[62]
References
^Fritz, Ben (28 December 2009). "Holiday box-office take is highest in recent history". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 1 January 2010. Retrieved 31 January 2010. Warner Bros.' new version of the British detective, portrayed by Robert Downey Jr., had a very good start given its $90-million production budget.
^ abLyall, Sarah (21 January 2009). "Is That You, Sherlock?". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 4 October 2019. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
^Knolle, Sharon (13 January 2010). "Hey, 'Sherlock' ... Who's This Mark Strong Fellow?". Moviefone. AOL. Archived from the original on 15 January 2010. Retrieved 13 January 2010. Guy and I, we've done three films together now. He's surprisingly lacking in ego. He's not a shouter or a bully. He just likes to create an environment in which people can do their best work.
^Rich, Katey (23 December 2009). "Exclusive Interview: Sherlock Holmes Villain Mark Strong". Cinema Blend. Archived from the original on 29 December 2009. Retrieved 23 December 2009. I like him. He's a really nice man. He's an ego-free zone. I've never known anybody to have such a different evaluation in the press as the person they are in real life. It's very odd that he's seen the way he has been, because he's incredibly easy to work with.
