Two Reviews
'Sherlock Holmes - A Game of Shadows'
Guy Ritche’s last Holmesian offering won the sceptics over and found a place with modern blockbuster loving audiences. Moving Holmes away from the cerebral and placing him as an eccentric pugilist Victorian James Bond allowed Ritcihe to satisfy his core fan base whilst avoiding many of the criticisms that have befallen previous attempts to bring Holmes to the big screen. His Holmes and Watson inhabited that special cinematic ‘bromantic’ world where they could exchange barbs, clothes and other things that would have previously been labelled homoerotic. Robert Downey Jr makes for a delightfully eccentric and built Holmes, it’s entirely believable that his Holmes is equally at home fighting his way through crowds of thugs and a good game of chess. Jude Law played long-suffering ex-Army doctor remarkably well (periodically disappearing limp aside).
This time round Ritche (and screenwriters Michele & Kieran Mulroney) have tried to give us a more conventional Holmesian mystery, which unfortunately doesn’t work in this established formula. To complain that a Sherlock Holmes film has too much Holmes might be contradictory for a long-time Holmesian but in this instance that extra added Holmes feels more like an afterthought. The set pieces are as brilliantly zany as the last and the stunts just as impressive but the core mystery is to throw away with the solution coming in a bink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment that is far too key to treat so flippantly.
Stephen Fry gives us bizarrely buffoonish Mycroft who acts more as comic relief than the man who “isthe British government [...] the most indispensable man in the country.” (BRU) Presumably his reinvention as a nudist in an era that has become the byline for prudish British stuffiness is a device to show just how out of the ordinary the Holmes brothers are and that Mycroft is just as, if not, weirder than Sherlock. Noomi Rapace’s character finds herself sidelined and very quickly reduced to setting up one of the major gags and it feels very much a waste of her and her character, perhaps they’re planning to develop her further in a later film. Where Rapace’s character suffers, Mary (Kelly Reilly) is elevated to codebreaker and plays an integral part in the final solution. Jared Harris makes for a refreshingly young Moriarty and his confrontation with Downey Jr is clever but overplayed
None of these criticisms stop it from being an enjoyable film, it might be narrative mess and rely too much on overplayed gags but the pacing is fast, the editing flash and the score is as brilliant as the last. The film is a fun romp and hopefully they’ll return the original format for the inevitable third instalment.
'The Ladykillers', Gielgud Theatre
I used to work at the Gielgud theatrewhere ‘The Ladykillers’ is currently on, so after the matinee on Wednesday I popped backstage to catch up with my friends and have a good nosy around the set. I didn’t see any of the cast but was told how absolutely lovely everyone is
The best things about ‘The Ladykillers’ are the truly impressive old fashioned tricks they use, such as the chairs moving about randomly as the train passes, a knife getting thrown from one side of the stage and sticking in someone’s head on the other side… that sort of thing… oh and the world’s cutest car chase. The rest of the show is a fine, it’s not the best thing I’ve seen on stage nor is it the worst, it’s very enjoyable and the comic performances are spot on. Some of the sight gags are too set up (the scarf especially), particularly if you’re in the upper-circle but it’s early days and I imagine as the run progresses the timing will become better and they’ll look more spontaneous. I’ve never seen the film so can’t comment on the closeness of the adaptation but I will say it does get very muddled towards the end and I don’t think running the last ten minutes or so in darkness works. It also wasn’t as funny as I was hoping but in chatting to my former co-workers they said it does really depend on the audience, sometimes it clicks and other times it doesn’t.
Peter Capaldi and James Fleet were the stand out performers for me, both very funny and spot on with their timing although I haven’t the slightest idea what accent Peter Capaldi was going for (at first it sounded like a bad Welsh accent but it wasn’t distracting once I got used to whatever wispy accent he was going for) but that’s not a criticism of his performance. Clive Rowe was also brilliant… and so was everyone else but Capaldi and Fleet stood out.
It wasn’t even close to sold-out so I think getting tickets shouldn’t be a problem, especially if you go for a matinee, but I really wouldn’t pay more than £30. If you’re booking for the upper-circle, be warned if your towards the back you will miss things and the sight lines aren’t great if you’re not in the centre.
For me, 4/5 for the production, 3.5/5 for the show.
Guy Ritche’s last Holmesian offering won the sceptics over and found a place with modern blockbuster loving audiences. Moving Holmes away from the cerebral and placing him as an eccentric pugilist Victorian James Bond allowed Ritcihe to satisfy his core fan base whilst avoiding many of the criticisms that have befallen previous attempts to bring Holmes to the big screen. His Holmes and Watson inhabited that special cinematic ‘bromantic’ world where they could exchange barbs, clothes and other things that would have previously been labelled homoerotic. Robert Downey Jr makes for a delightfully eccentric and built Holmes, it’s entirely believable that his Holmes is equally at home fighting his way through crowds of thugs and a good game of chess. Jude Law played long-suffering ex-Army doctor remarkably well (periodically disappearing limp aside).
This time round Ritche (and screenwriters Michele & Kieran Mulroney) have tried to give us a more conventional Holmesian mystery, which unfortunately doesn’t work in this established formula. To complain that a Sherlock Holmes film has too much Holmes might be contradictory for a long-time Holmesian but in this instance that extra added Holmes feels more like an afterthought. The set pieces are as brilliantly zany as the last and the stunts just as impressive but the core mystery is to throw away with the solution coming in a bink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment that is far too key to treat so flippantly.
Stephen Fry gives us bizarrely buffoonish Mycroft who acts more as comic relief than the man who “isthe British government [...] the most indispensable man in the country.” (BRU) Presumably his reinvention as a nudist in an era that has become the byline for prudish British stuffiness is a device to show just how out of the ordinary the Holmes brothers are and that Mycroft is just as, if not, weirder than Sherlock. Noomi Rapace’s character finds herself sidelined and very quickly reduced to setting up one of the major gags and it feels very much a waste of her and her character, perhaps they’re planning to develop her further in a later film. Where Rapace’s character suffers, Mary (Kelly Reilly) is elevated to codebreaker and plays an integral part in the final solution. Jared Harris makes for a refreshingly young Moriarty and his confrontation with Downey Jr is clever but overplayed
None of these criticisms stop it from being an enjoyable film, it might be narrative mess and rely too much on overplayed gags but the pacing is fast, the editing flash and the score is as brilliant as the last. The film is a fun romp and hopefully they’ll return the original format for the inevitable third instalment.
'The Ladykillers', Gielgud Theatre
I used to work at the Gielgud theatrewhere ‘The Ladykillers’ is currently on, so after the matinee on Wednesday I popped backstage to catch up with my friends and have a good nosy around the set. I didn’t see any of the cast but was told how absolutely lovely everyone is
The best things about ‘The Ladykillers’ are the truly impressive old fashioned tricks they use, such as the chairs moving about randomly as the train passes, a knife getting thrown from one side of the stage and sticking in someone’s head on the other side… that sort of thing… oh and the world’s cutest car chase. The rest of the show is a fine, it’s not the best thing I’ve seen on stage nor is it the worst, it’s very enjoyable and the comic performances are spot on. Some of the sight gags are too set up (the scarf especially), particularly if you’re in the upper-circle but it’s early days and I imagine as the run progresses the timing will become better and they’ll look more spontaneous. I’ve never seen the film so can’t comment on the closeness of the adaptation but I will say it does get very muddled towards the end and I don’t think running the last ten minutes or so in darkness works. It also wasn’t as funny as I was hoping but in chatting to my former co-workers they said it does really depend on the audience, sometimes it clicks and other times it doesn’t.
Peter Capaldi and James Fleet were the stand out performers for me, both very funny and spot on with their timing although I haven’t the slightest idea what accent Peter Capaldi was going for (at first it sounded like a bad Welsh accent but it wasn’t distracting once I got used to whatever wispy accent he was going for) but that’s not a criticism of his performance. Clive Rowe was also brilliant… and so was everyone else but Capaldi and Fleet stood out.
It wasn’t even close to sold-out so I think getting tickets shouldn’t be a problem, especially if you go for a matinee, but I really wouldn’t pay more than £30. If you’re booking for the upper-circle, be warned if your towards the back you will miss things and the sight lines aren’t great if you’re not in the centre.
For me, 4/5 for the production, 3.5/5 for the show.