SCREENINGS

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, is a buddy movie. The chums
are the newest versions of the eccentric detective Sherlock Holmes,
and his closest friend, Dr. John H. Watson, the stock characters
Arthur Conan Doyle first created in 1887. The Guinness Book of
World Records says that Holmes is the “most popular movie character
of all times” with 75 actors playing the part in over 212
films-most notably, a series of 1940’s films starring Basil
Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, and a British TV series starring Jeremy
Brett and Edward Hardwicke.
In 2009, Robert Downey Jr. won a Golden Globe Award for his
portrayal of the detective as an anti-social, but analytically
brilliant boxing champion with Jude Law playing Watson as a
confident and inventive detective-in-training in “Sherlock Holmes.”
In this sequel, Holmes is quite distressed that tomorrow is his
only friend’s wedding day, and he instantly invents a bachelor
party at a world-famous music hall/bordello called the Shush Club.
Watson quickly deduces that none of his med-school friends,
Cambridge chums, or future in-laws are included in the festivities.
In fact, the only other people Watson knows in the black-tie and
shiny satin muddle of humanity assembled below the bloomer-wearing
twins gliding back-and-forth on a ceiling-mounted swing, is
Sherlock and his older brother Mycroft (Stephen Fry).
Watson begins consuming the first of several bottles of wine,
and abandons his friend to play poker with a half-dozen,
shifty-eyed characters. Meanwhile, Holmes becomes distracted by the
beautiful Gypsy fortune teller, Sim (Noomi Rapace), whose brother
is the intended recipient of a letter the detective recently
retrieved from the lovely, but deadly, Irene Adler (Rachel
McAdams). Never one to follow when he can lead, Holmes takes the
Gypsy’s Tarot deck in hand, and interprets aloud, “There is a
Cossack suspended above you, waiting to kill you.” Not just any
Cossack mind you, but an acrobatic, wall-climbing, sword and knife
wielding, seemingly impossible to kill Cossack who, in an extended
fight sequence worthy of Jackie Chan, is stabbed, garroted,
trampled, buried and falls from great heights only to rise up and
fight again against Sherlock and his Gypsy gal.
There are two other women of note in the cast: Sherlock’s
landlady, Mrs. Hudson (Geraldine James), who literally cleans up
after the detective, and the recently married Mary Watson (Kelly
Reilly), who is left to clean up the messes left by her husband and
Sherlock after she survives a fall from a high bridge. But as able
as all four women appear to be, they are used in a servant-like
fashion by Holmes, who then sets them aside as the attractive
inconveniences they are.
For Holmes is insanely jealous of any female who might upset the
special friendship he has between Watson and himself, or between
himself and himself. That’s right, Sherlock is the classic
incarnation of the narcissistic personality disorder Freud called
megalomania. In short, to Holmes, the world revolves entirely
around Holmes.
As portrayed by Robert Downey Jr., Holmes may consider Watson to
be more than just a close friend. For example, in one
bullet-riddled and explosion blasting sequence aboard a train,
Holmes first dresses as a woman, throws his rival, Mrs. Watson off
the swiftly moving coach, strips off most of his clothes, throws
himself down on the floor, and pulls Watson down to his side with a
swift embrace. Later, when the two are at an Embassy Ball, Holmes
pulls Watson close for a unisex waltz around the room full of
heterosexual dancing couples. And later still, when the two are
sheltering from cannon fire, Holmes leans close to his friend and
asks, “Be honest. Aren’t you having more fun with me than you would
on that honeymoon in Brighton?”
Bombastic, irreverent, insufferable, and certifiably insane as
he may be, Sherlock Holmes is never dull, and under Guy Ritchie’s
direction, Robert Downey and Jude Law provide top notch
popcorn-munching entertainment in “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of
Shadows.”
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