First created by Sir Conan Arthur Doyle in 1887, Sherlock Holmes has gone on to be a huge figurehead for detective fiction in any and all formats of culture. Most recently immortalised by Robert Downey Jr.s’ big screen adventures and Benedict Cumberbatchs’ small screen endeavours. Now, in Mr.Holmes, Ian McKellen seems to seek to return the character to the literary source he came from. There may be a swinging fist of approval from those literary buffs sitting in the corner of Baker Street pubs waiting for a Sherlock Short Story quiz to start.
Director Bill Condon deconstructs the man beyond the myth, placing Holmes in a remote Sussex farmhouse where he has retired. He lives relatively isolated and unknown, with only his housekeeper Mrs Munro (Laura Linney) and her son Roger (Milo Parker) to keep him company. Holmes appears to be everything you'd expect from a grumpy old man who'd locked himself away from potential stardom, annoyed with his misrepresentation in Watson’s best selling novels (get the meta reference now?) Deciding to take up his final case, Holmes seeks to solve this mystery and unravel his own as he strains to recall the events that caused his retirement.
The country setting and gruff character portrayed by McKellen really do seem to pull Holmes away from the antisocial, almost robotic portrayal which is becoming all too prevalent with the detective. Hopefully we will get a much more humanistic return to the character, who's greatest success has always been not what he sees in a mystery, but what her makes us see in ourselves.
Mr Holmes will be on our screen June 19th.