Mr. Holmes” stars Sir Ian McKellen as the world’s most famous detective, Sherlock Holmes, but the game that’s afoot isn’t so much a mystery as it is a revelation. “It is my business to know what other people don’t know,” Holmes said in “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle.” Here, he discovers something many people know, but was unknown to him.
Set in May, 1947 Holmes is a lion in winter. The once great detective is 93 years old, retired for many decades after a case went awry and drove him out of the business. He’s in self imposed exile, living in the country far from 221B Baker Street, accompanied only by his stern housekeeper Mrs. Munro (Laura Linney) and her young son Roger (Milo Parker).
As his memory fades he tries to piece together the true story of his last case, not the embellished version made popular by his former associate Dr. John Watson. “I told Watson if I ever write a story myself it will be correct the million misconceptions created by his writing.”
Told in flashbacks between the present and a recent trip to Japan—to collect some Prickly Ash, a rumoured remedy for senility—coupled with the fragmented memories of his last case in 1919, Holmes comes to the startling realization that human nature is not a mystery that logic alone can unravel.
There are no hounds, very few deerstalker hats and his signature pipe is nowhere to be seen. Arthur Conan Doyle’s character, the way we’re used to seeing him, is gone save for a glint in McKellen’s eye. “Mr. Holmes” is a contemplative movie about aging, friendship and human frailty.
As the title would suggest, this is a character study and McKellen makes the most of the opportunity to play the man at various times in his life. From the sharp edged Holmes in the flashbacks to the diminished detective in Japan to the reflective, frustrated and struggling man in later years, he fits them together like pieces of a jigsaw to form a whole. It’s a tour de force performance—actually three—that provides the fireworks in what is otherwise a deliberately paced story.
Director Bill Condon, reteaming with McKellen for a second time after “Gods and Monsters,” once again presents a radically rethought story of a man’s life. While a bit more drama would have been welcome, there is not mystery why the reflective nature of the material and McKellen’s graceful work are so appealing.
Taking a lead from last years’ “My Week with Marilyn,” a bio that concentrated on just seven tumultuous days in the turbulent life of Marilyn Monroe, and recycling a character seen twice in as many years on the big screen, “Hyde Park on Hudson” tells a time compressed story of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s extramarital affairs and meeting with King George VI.
Based on true events the movie begins with FDR (Bill Murray) summoning his fifth or sixth cousin, Margaret Suckley (Laura Linney), “it depends on how you count,” she says, to keep him company at his country resort, Hyde Park on Hudson in New York. It’s June of 1939, the Depression rages on and World War II is mere months away.
FDR uses the country home to “forget the weight of the world,” and carry on an extra martial affair with Margaret. The quiet idyll of the retreat is disturbed when the President welcomed the King (Samuel West) and his wife, the Queen Consort Elizabeth (Olivia Colman), who came calling for American support should war erupt.
Despite the racy subject matter—FDR’s appetite for the ladies—there is nothing torrid about “Hyde Park on Hudson.” It is said over and over that the President needs peace and quiet, and that mantra establishes the tone of the film. Director Roger “Notting Hill” Michell has made a subtle film set in polite society, amongst the social class who treat each other with quiet restraint. That kind of restraint is the order of the day, both in the performances and story.
Some will find it slow and meandering but the movie’s beauty lies in its leisurely pace. It’s a study of a different time, a time, were respect and decorum ruled.
At the center of it all is Bill Murray. The supporting cast is good, in fact better than good, but Murray gives the kind of effortless performance that makes one wonder what might have happened to his career if his first dramatic outing, “The Razor’s Edge,” hadn’t been such a flop, forcing him back into comedy.
“Hyde Park on Hudson” is a quiet film that may make some noise at Oscar time.
The Squid and the Whale, a coming-of-age story about a teenager whose writer parents are divorcing, gets my vote for the most over-looked movie of 2005. Before the Oscar nominations were announced I thought that Jeff Daniels’ performance as the self-centered failure-of-a-father-figure was a lock for a Best Actor nod. Daniels is an actor who is so natural a performer that I think we often forget how good he is. I’d lump him in the same category with another Jeff—Jeff Bridges—who is also often overlooked.
The film is a semi-autobiographical story by former New Yorker writer Noah Baumbach and avoids the pitfalls that so many family dramas that deal with divorce fall into. It’s poignant, funny and in a movie filled with great performances and scenes one sequence stands out as one of the best not only from the movie, but one of the best of the year. There is a scene in a doorway between Daniels and his ex-wife, played by Laura Linney, where in just a couple of minutes we learn all we need to know about their relationship—the tenderness that once existed and the bitterness that now touches every moment of their lives.
The Squid and the Whale is one of the best movies of last year, and if you missed it at the theatre check it out on DVD.
