Just pretend it isn't what it is!

Rating: 10/10 (15 January 2010)

I wanted to enjoy this movie. And I did most thoroughly. There wasn't a single part of it I could criticise. It just wasn't the film I wanted to see. In the UK, we've had it so good. Have you ever seen the beauty, charm and grace of The Dancing men with Brett as Holmes? Fantastic acting, sober and as real as one can imagine life was back in the nineteenth century. A perfect visual and auditory treat. That's what this version has to compete against. The problem is not that this is a bad film, but that it has to compete against years of what has been made before, and to which we are accustomed. Everything in this movie may be true to the books, but it isn't true in our heads, and that's where it counts. Guy has made a sharp and interesting film. The music was brilliant I thought. I hope that comes out on an album. Perhaps a little heavy on the CGI for my tastes (sometimes nowadays I feel as if I'm watching a cartoon instead of a film - I did spot the CGI man running! They didn't quite get that right) but I really did enjoy it...just as long as I pretended that it wasn't a Sherlock Holmes film!