Once upon a time Robert Downey Jr.’s considerable talent and moxie was enough to protect even the most insipid project from total abomination. Alongside his numerous achievements (Iron Man, Chaplin, Tropic Thunder, and the underrated Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Two Girls and a Guy), Downey has been able to buffer numerous lesser films from a far worse fate. No more. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, like a Republican debate or any other vintage train wreck, is pretty much beyond redemption.
Director Guy Richie, fallen from grace even faster than David Gordon Green, throws out a thumb-in-your-eye structural sensationalism as the film’s central core in lieu of a plausible plot or any in-depth theme or characterizations. A veritable position paper for self-conscious special effects as the film’s raison d’etre, Sherlock is Richie as Baz Luhrmann with Conan Doyle as Shakespeare.
Unlike Richie’s first Holmes film where the iconoclastic modernizing vision of his hero had some wisps of wit to stir in, the newest entry in the franchise begs what the director of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch and one of the most savvy actors in Hollywood are doing in this homily to hollow action. It’s ironic a character so loaded with intellectuality in the Conan Doyle novels and previous cinematic versions is so bereft of anything remotely cerebral here. The banter between Downey and Jude Law as Dr. Watson lags behind the earlier Holmes film’s dialogue and it isn’t the best thing about this film, it’s the only worthy thing.
A Game of Shadows also stars Noomi Rapace, who played the Swedish Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (looking mostly shellshocked as if she’s just seen the opening week box office number for the American Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) and a limp Jared Harris as Dr. Moriarity. Tune Harris in on Mad Men and you’ll be way ahead.
I could bore you with a description of the film’s plot but let’s be real–you’ve got some holiday shopping to finish and I doubt you’d want to hear it anyway. No wonder Downey’s drinking embalming fluid in the film’s first scene.
3 Embalming Fluids (Out of 10)
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