How does the story go again? The old man stares at his notes and is as helpless as ever: he can’t remember. Why did he decide to leave London and move to his country estate in Sussex and care mostly for his bees three decades ago? 93 year old Sherlock Holmes (a fantastic Ian McKellen) is going senile and because he notices that he is slowly losing his sharp mind he decides to carry out one last big assignment: he wants to write down the events of his last case, and unlike the glorifying report his companion Dr. Watson wrote, he wants it to reflect what really happened. Holmes spends time with warm caretaker Mrs. Munro (Laura Linney) and her 11 year old son Roger (Milo Parker) during his twilight years as he deals with his identity crisis, since losing his memory distances him from the very foundation of his being – logic.

MR. HOLMES is Bill Condon’s (GODS AND MONSTERS, KINSEY, INSIDE WIKILEAKS) adaptation of Mitch Cullin’s book “A Slight Trick of the Mind.” Similar to Guy Richie’s Sherlock Holmes action movies or the Sherlock television show, which stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the eccentric detective, the film is a relatively free interpretation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s invention. Holmes may be losing his memory but his humor, impatience, and power of observation shine through time and time again. The time leap gives Condon the opportunity to reflect on the discrepancy between self-perception and the public’s view under the guise of a typical detective story a la Conan Doyle.

Jens Mayer (INDIEKINO MAGAZIN)

Translation: Elinor Lewy