Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows – Movie Review

Posted by Vivek on December 21, 2011 | 1 Comment

Director: Guy Ritchie
Cast: Robert Downey Jr, Jude Law, Rachel McAdams, Mark Strong, Eddie Marsan
Screenplay – Michele Mulroney, Kieran Mulroney and Arthur Conan Doyle

Sherlock Holmes is in the final battle with his most formidable rival, Prof James Moriarty and for all the people who have read the book which culminates in the fiercest of battles, the movie does full justice to the original story. This one also goes a little further to showing the vulnerabilities that Sherlock is going to experience later on in life, a life that appears to be without Watson. But for Watson is very much by his side for this one.

The antagonist truly brings out the quality of the protagonist and in James Moriarty, the antagonist, Robert Downey finds, a very suitable and able villain, depicted in full strength and screen presence by Jared Harris. In fact the main strength of this film is the very solid bunch of actors, each of whom perform to all of their potential and complement each other scene for scene. This and the pace along with the humor, with which the movie weaves its way to the natural conclusion.

As was the case in the novel, this is the culmination of the fight. Sherlock has met his match and the film does full justice to that “ultimate” battle, which has no victor, as put by Moriarty, “the world of men will look to go to war anyway, I am just going to watch.”

Ironical that this novel, preceded two real World Wars. Sherlock Holmes, the fictional character had his quirks, the actor, Robert Downey truly and fully gets into the skin of the character. However, if there are two “out of their skin” performers, that has to be Jude Law and Noomi Rapace, whose facial expressions are a joy to watch for the audience and so real world despite being in the midst of a drama.
What is also fascinating is the screenplay, which has stood the test of time and a hundred years after being first written, still captivate the audience and play out like a twenty first century film. The direction and scene visualization make this an entertaining piece to watch for any audience.

Vivek Kumar