Somehow, Guy Ritchie’s sexy, fisticuff-prone Sherlock actually works.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's original Sherlock Holmes was the product of a time that also produced Utilitarianism, the scientific method and the first theories surrounding four-dimensional timespace. A time when Reason — emphatic capitalization intentional — would Save Us All. It's appropriate, in a somewhat perverse way, that a Sherlock produced by the 21st century would only be too happy to add “punching” to Holmes’s repertoire of deductive skill, mechanical genius and aptitude for physical disguise.
And it actually works, for the most part. Guy Ritchie's Sherlock (Robert Downey Jr.) is never quite as refined as Conan Doyle's, but he’s every bit as brilliant and aloof, resorting to physical violence only when it's forced on him or when it seems the most direct path through a given problem. What's strange about Ritchie's Action Holmes is that after going through a lot of trouble to sell us on the conceit in the first act (basically, Holmes's deductive capabilities and knowledge of anatomy give him a leg up in a brawl), Ritchie lets his expanded fighting abilities go forgotten throughout much of the film’s remainder. Most of the script's mechanics are borrowed from the golden age detective fiction from which the character originates and — barring a few brilliant set pieces — rely very little on the tremendous goodwill required to accept Sherlock Holmes as a Victorian John McClane.
The plot can be boiled down to “Sherlock Holmes versus Alesteir Crowley,” a premise that has great dork appeal while also being conscious of many classic Conan Doyle themes. After supposedly rising from the dead, loose Crowley-analogue Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong) goes about arranging a series of devious mystical-themed murders that play into a vague world-domination plot. Maybe. Though Holmes goes through several exhaustive monologues explaining the villain's methods, Blackwood's motivations are never very clear. The film ends up relying on minute-to-minute mystery and its stars’ considerable charisma (Downey Jr. is supported by Jude Law as Watson) to keep it chugging along, and even there — in the same way as Sherlock's new iron fists — it's surprisingly successful. Chug it does.
Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes is a convoluted, anachronistic mess as much as it's a compelling detective story, but even when it's fumbling, it's never boring. It's not exactly Holmes as we remember him, but it’s not the Holmes we might have feared from the trailers either. Ritchie has gone and made a peculiar little film from the oddments of the great detective, and for what is obviously meant to be a franchise-starter, the possibility of Downey-lock's future adventures certainly does intrigue.
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