Mr. Holmes

The magisterial Sir Ian McKellen reunites with Gods and Monsters director Bill Condon for this wistful look at the famous sleuth in his sunset years. Though he’s in his 90s, Sherlock Holmes is not going gently into that good night; he’s exasperated with how Dr. Watson has characterized him; generally cantankerous with everyone around him, including housekeeper Mrs. Munro (Laura Linney, wonderfully understated); and worried about his own advancing senility which he tries to remedy with special herbs. Deciding to set the story—and his mind—straight, he decides to work on his version of a 30-year-old case involving a missing woman, a strange musical instrument and the mistake that leads him to retirement. Using an intricate flashback structure, Mr. Holmes allows McKellen to play the character in two different time frames – the enfeebled, grouchy gumshoe puttering around his Sussex garden in 1947 and the sleek sleuth of 30 years earlier – and the result is one of his finest performances. Loosely adapted from Mitch Cullin’s novel A Slight Trick of the Mind and featuring precise attention to period detail and the visual splendor of the English countryside, Mr. Holmes stands proudly against the other indelible portraits of the unforgettable man who lived at 221B Baker Street.