MOVIE: SHERLOCK HOLMES
Boy has Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous offspring comes a long way since terrorising the crooks of 19th century London. With a deft flick of the wrist Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes scuttles all of his latterday ‘stiff upper lip’ incarnations, taking him back to the cold-hearted, big-brained bohemian he always was, with his cigars in his coal-scuttle, tobacco tipping off his slipper, a pick-me-up of cocaine never far away. Robert Downey Jr’s Holmes could streetfight and mud-sling along with the gnarliest of Lock Stock geezers – except he has charm and a fierce intellect to boot. And Jude Law’s pretty-faced, prudish Watson is the best kind of wingman. The plot is basically irrelevant, but for the sticklers: Watson and Holmes battle a black magic conspiracy to control Britain, with some jousting and lip-pouting from love interests Rachel McAdams and Kelly Reilly along the way. What you’ll take away with you is the gritty afterimage of the grungey, action-packed streets of old London town, rode hard and true by one of literature’s best ever bromances. (AB)
