Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)
A little bit less Cockneys-and-eel-pies
Guy Ritchie’s second Sherlock Holmes film sees our British detective, and his reluctant partner Dr. Watson, investigate a series of crimes across Europe, which all seem to be linked to Holmes’ archenemy - Professor Moriarty.
Whereas Ritchie’s first Holmes film seemed a grandiose bombardment of British stereotyping and green screening, A Game of Shadows seems far less crude. The tone is more familiar to other Holmes portrayals, London doesn’t have the unfiltered haze, and the film relies a bit less on comic calamity and more on plot. Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law are back as Holmes and Watson respectively, and do a decent job of maintaining the quick-witted, insult-slinging, danger-dodging relationship we saw in the first movie, only this time with more character development.
Stephen Fry does an excellent job as Holmes’ brother, Mycroft, delivering a wonderful contempt for the common man.
The film offers Ritchie’s tried and tested formula for filmmaking, plenty of fast cuts and edgy music, but these are not the main strengths of the film - the script is. Line after line, A Game of Shadows offers an extremely intelligent story, filled with humour and sarcasm, that makes it seem like a A-Grade play, and a cut above its predecessor.
If Ritchie can top this then his carrying of the Sherlock gauntlet shall not have been completely in vain.
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