Ian McKellen plays a retired Holmes in the last years of his life, fighting against the dying of the light as his mental faculties decline inexorably. A growing friendship with the precocious son of his housekeeper drags him enough out of his torpor and wallowing in regret to finally tie up some loose ends, but now ones of the emotional kind, rather than of the factual. And that's fairly much the whole story: no murder mystery, this, rather a study of ageing and memory.
McKellen is clearly a loss to screen portrayals of Holmes; even in the dawning senility that the role requires, he fits it like a glove. The relationship with the forthright young boy who pushes him to revisit the past is also sweetly realised. It is a slight film, in that its perambulations don't lead anywhere except back to the beginning, but the walk there is nevertheless a pleasant and thoughtful one.
6/10
No comments:
Post a Comment