Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Warner Bros Pictures, 2011

Directed by Guy Ritchie

Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Jared Harris

Three stars

The first Sherlock Holmes film was a reasonably enjoyable, if relatively innocuous exercise in the action blockbuster genre, filling the void left when the original Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy concluded and giving the terrific Robert Downey Jr. another role he was practically born to play. Even though I've seen the film twice, I can't speak very definitively about the plot or the villain (it's definitely like the second two Pirates flicks, in that regard), but it hardly mattered, since Downey and co-star Jude Law were such a perfect match. Their infectious banter probably would have made for a better sitcom than it did for a feature length action film, and Rachel McAdams was probably underused, but whoever the hell wrote the script wisely made the Holmes/Watson relationship the center of the film, and as a result, I still rather enjoyed it, even if it will never be a favorite film of mine. It didn't hurt that the film was, across the board, very well made, from gorgeous art direction, to director Guy Ritchie's eye for enjoyable action set pieces, to an exhilarating score from Hans Zimmer (who is a master, in that regard).

 

The follow-up, subtitled as A Game of Shadows, is a more enjoyable film through and through, bringing back everything that made the first film good, and giving the entire team a better script to work with. Downey is as good as ever here, though it does feel like he has less to carry this time around, and he pretty much just gets to goof around the entire time as a result. And I'm once again surprised at how much I like Law, an actor I've never been a fan of, in the role of Dr. Watson. McAdams gets underused again (and gets written out early), with the central female role being filled by Noomi Rapace (from the original Dragon Tattoo films), who also gets...well, underused. Jared Harris steps in as Professor Moriarty, Holmes' archenemy, and he acquits himself quite well. I always felt like Lord Blackwood, the villain in the first Holmes film, was unspeakably dull and, despite his obviously villainous plan, quite unthreatening. Harris plays Moriarty with a slimy friendliness, masking a penchant for evil that only comes out a few times, but is striking when it does. 

What makes A Game of Shadows so much more fun than it's predecessor is that it really amps up its James Bond and Indiana Jones elements, creating a film that is more compelling from the first frame to the last. The screenplay's globetrotting sensibility moves the plot along nicely where the previous film, set completely in London, grew a bit stagnant, racing from scene to scene, action sequence to action sequence, always feeling lie the stakes are much higher this time around. The film is also considerably darker, helped especially by a shattering climax loosely based on Arthur Conon Doyle's The Final Problem, one of the most widely known (and most infamous) stories in the Sherlock Holmes canon. The reference adds a good deal of weight to the proceedings, and while the writers choose to resolve what could have been a terrific cliffhanger of a conclusion, the ending that they do give us is completely appropriate for this version of Holmes, and Downey, of course, revels in it. Despite the fact that he's pretty much been a blockbuster franchise poster boy for the past few years, Downey really is one of the most talented guys working today, and as much as I enjoy his work here and in films like Iron Man, I'm hoping that, once those obligations have settled down a bit, he'll take on some meatier roles. 

Overall, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is a pleasant surprise, the rare blockbuster sequel that really does improve upon its predecessor. The screenplay throws a few borderline examples of deus ex machina at us in the third act, but for a movie that embraces its serious and silly aspects about equally, the writers can be forgiven for that. I was skeptical about this film, but I enjoyed it immensely, and even if it's far from one of the year's best films, it's still a worthwhile piece of work, with plenty of talent on display. And I'll certainly be up for a part three, if the writers decide to veer closer to this film than to the first, and as long as they still have stories worth telling.