Rent Mr. Holmes (2015)

I disagree with the critics - AGAIN! - Mr. Holmes review by MD

I wonder if it's time we had a poll among members of this site: how often do you find yourself disagreeing with the professional critics? This is another film that comes with a high rating on Rotten Tomatoes, yet it really is very disappointing. What did the critics see in it? The story is a most curious affair, certainly not one that grabbed my attention and kept me riveted, and the whole link to the Holmes films/TV series we all know is tenuous at best. The acting? Mediocre. The script? A few neat touches, otherwise bland and far too prone to go off the point. Entertainment value? Low - there is really nothing in this to excite or stimulate. Ultimately, the film is too slow, too unengaging, and has nothing much to add to the wonderful oeuvre of work about this great detective. Splat - a rotten tomato indeed!

Undemanding Time-passer - Mr. Holmes review by Alphaville

This is gentle, undemanding fare, acted and directed in gentle, undemanding fashion, more suited to a television than a cinema screen. If you don’t expect the excitement and intellectual brilliance we’ve come to expect from a Sherlock Holmes tale, especially since Cumberbatch took on the role, the film passes amiably without hitting any heights. The plot pitches Holmes as a doddery 93yo trying to remember his last case. It’s a slight story, focussing mainly on Holmes’ relationship with his housekeeper and her young son, while the old case seen in flashback doesn’t have the impact or resonance the script would like to think it has. The whole is less about Holmes the detective than a meditation on old age, regret and loneliness.

Watchable TV-drama-style British film about 93 year old Sherlock remembering... - Mr. Holmes review by PV

I've never really liked Sherlock Holmes - because I don't believe the character or his superhuman powers of deduction (which seem to me on a par with that bloke on 3-2-1 wh0 translated absurd nonsense rhymes into meaningful clues as to what to choose to win the car and not win Dusty Bin! Anyone under 35 look away now because you won't have a clue what I am taking about!)

Holmes seems smug and grating in both the stories and the films, and I utterly despise the yoof-friendly mobile-phone-caption-spewing BBC TV version.

This is more like a TV drama - about an old 93 year old Holmes attempting to recall a case and his life. A tacked-on subplot about a Japanese herbal medicine gives the drama it's ethnic quota. Thankfully, unlike in most BBC dramas, a 1948 village has no black characters (thus reflecting the REAL WORLD). I liked the other subplot about bees and wasps more, frankly.

To be honest, Ian McKellen gives a better old man with dodgy memory and bad health performance in the classic, 5 star 'Gods and Monsters'. But this is passable and the Kent and East Sussex coast brings back memories for me.

So-so and NOT too slow-moving at all - it's a contemplative drama about an old man trying to remember his past and having flashbacks. What d'you expect? Car chases and dinosaur hunts? DOH!

3.5 stars rounded up.

Disappointingly dull - Mr. Holmes review by BE

This movie was not as I expected it to be. I fell asleep twice watching it but persevered to the end in the hope that it might live up to some sort of expectation. It didn't. Sir Ian Mckellan overdid the old man act and the two actors in supporting roles (housekeeper and son) were not believable. A waste of time. One star given for the shots of the lovely English countryside.

Meh - Mr. Holmes review by William London

Lovely pictures of the countryside. The story is.. wait, what story? I nearly fell asleep. Save yourself 90 minutes and watch something else except if you have sleeping troubles.

Slow and steady - Mr. Holmes review by JD

A strange idea, Sherlock Holmes with dementia, filled with guilt and regret, has retreated to a life of bitter recluse. Only Ian MacKellen could have pulled this frankly ridiculous drama into any other than a stuporous bore. He does an old man pretty well, not just by being quite old himself but by further subtleties of gesture and gait. Recommended only as a masterclass in acting but not as a drama.

Beautifully produced but a tangled mess - Mr. Holmes review by RD

There's a lot to admire in this film, the settings, the imagery and photography and the acting are all finely balanced and executed, but it just didn't work as a story. Or to be precise, three stories.

There are three threads to the story, one is the relationship between Holmes and the housekeeper's young boy which if you've seen the Werther's Original TV adverts you will have caught the entire thread stretched out throughout the film. Charming but limited, the TV advert definitely had the edge.

The second thread is the previous visit to Japan by Holmes on a mistaken errand. No plot there as it's a bare sideline, nothing happens and it's nothing to do with the rest of the film apart from obtaining Prickly Ash extract for his memory. Visually pleasant but irrelevant.

The third ( and main) thread is the case involving a troubled young lady and a white glove. I listened intently to this thread but still couldn't work out what it was all about, it was presented in a very vague and broken manner, with hushed and secretive dialogue that it became obscure to point of annoyance, especially as what appeared to be the central part of the plot(s) were lost to us viewers.

If it all made sense to the film makers then I am sure they must be proud of their efforts, but for us poor viewers it was all a bit of a mess and a lot of nonsense.