Sherlock vs Sherlock

On New Year’s Day I went to see the film Sherlock Holmes – A Game of Shadows and Monday night I watched the opening episode of the new Sherlock BBC series on catch up TV. Two different spins on Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective and two follow ups.

I saw Guy Ritchie’s first Sherlock Holmes film with Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes and Jude Law as Watson when it was released and have to say I largely forgot it. As soon as I started watching the second film I began to remember exactly what I’d felt about the first one – nowhere near as clever or as funny as it thinks it is.

 

A Game of Shadows does have some mildly amusing moments but the humour is poor and verging on slapstick. As for action, well there are fights & stunts that are pretty good but on the whole while Robert Downey Jr. is always watchable and is obviously enjoying himself there is nothing captivating about his Sherlock. Nor does Jude Law bring anything to the character of Watson. In fact he was hardly necessary at all. And don’t get me started on Stephen Fry’s Mycroft Holmes, who played Sherlock’s older brother like an idiot.

The film also features other Conan Doyle characters – Prof Moriarty (played by Jared Harris) and Irene Adler (played by Rachel McAdams). The latter made so little impression that I didn’t even remember she played the same role in the previous film. The former was okay as villains go but neither creepy nor evil enough for my liking.

What about the plot? Basically it’s Holmes versus Moriarty. The Prof has an evil plan (don’t we all?) and Holmes has to stop him. On the way Watson’s wedding is nearly ruined and his honeymoon bride thrown off a train by Holmes. The real couple then pick up some gypsies - there is, well not exactly a sub-plot, more of a side line, about a gypsy woman’s brother being drawn into Moriarty’s scheme – and set off to foil the Prof. There is a confrontation between Holmes & Moriarty at Reichenbach, which is where Conan Doyle killed off Holmes. I won’t spoil the ending….

So how does the film compare to Steven Moffat & Mark Gatiss’ 21st Century Sherlock on the BBC?

Both use things to show Sherlock’s methods. In the film we get Sherlock’s internal dialogue as he works out how to oppose his foes. Works quite well. The TV series uses on screen text both to visualise Sherlock’s deductions and to display text messages. This works much better. Also the humour is much cleverer and wittier than in the film. And there is a much greater sense of the relationship between Sherlock and John. For a start they use their first names not surnames (ok that’s a historical thing 19th century blokes probably didn’t use each other’s first names) and they laugh together. It seems a more genuine relationship because of this.

Relationships or lack thereof, is the theme of the episode A Scandal in Belgravia. It kicks off right where the last episode of the previous series ended but quickly moves into a new story. Based on Conan Doyle’s A Scandal in Bohemia the story revolves around The Woman aka Irene Adler (played by Lara Pulver); a dominatrix who provides ‘services’ and collects items for future insurance and protection on her camera phone. Sherlock is called in by his brother Mycroft (here played by Mark Gatiss far more convincingly as the elder brother, who is just as smart, if more conventional and definitely establishment, as Sherlock himself) when Miss Adler reveals she has compromising photos of a royal princess. Sherlock and John set off to retrieve said photos but Miss Adler is waiting for them – naked.

Sherlock cannot make her out at first. When he looks at her we see only ????? rather than text on screen. She is smart and fascinating and a flirt. We see Sherlock become more interested in her and yet can only wonder if the interest in love or lust or just curiosity in a woman that seems to have an intellect close to his own. His very peculiarities prevent us and John from truly knowing his feelings. When it is believed that Miss Adler is dead John asks Mrs Hudson if Sherlock has ever had a relationship with anyone. The answer would appear to be ‘no’. He forgets his own relationship with Sherlock.

As for Sherlock when he goes to identify Miss Adler’s body with Mycroft, he asks him, observing other peoples grief: ‘Do you ever wonder if there is something wrong with us?’ – Mycroft replies: ‘All lives end; all hearts are broken. Caring is not an advantage’.

Miss Adler is however far from dead and there is more on her camera phone than compromising photos. She returns to Sherlock and ‘tricks’ him into decoding a vital email, sending the information to Moriarty (played very camp by Andrew Scott, but he does get some outrageously good lines e.g. ‘if you’re lying to me I’ll make you into shoes’). Mycroft then reveals the significance of the email to Sherlock and describes him as ‘a lonely naive man showing off to a woman clever enough to make him feel special’.

In end though Sherlock saves face by working out the code to Miss Adler’s phone. He tells her: ‘I always assumed that love was a disadvantage; thank you for the final proof’.

I won’t reveal the ending but suffice to say Miss Adler lives to fight another day.

I really like Moffat & Gatiss spin on Sherlock Holmes. I enjoyed the previous series and was looking forward to this one especially after running into the filming of a stunt at Bart’s hospital some while back. This episode didn’t disappoint. Clever and funny but with that underlying theme of relationship’s it worked really well.

And it made me think about why John Watson would be friends with Sherlock. The scene at 221B Baker Street when they are gathered with Mrs Hudson, DI Lestrade, John’s girlfriend and Molly Hooper (from Bart’s mortuary) at Christmas shows Sherlock at his insensitive worst. He insults John’s girlfriend by running through a list of John’s previous girlfriends to work out which one she is and makes cringe worthy comments to Molly who carries a torch for him: ‘You always say such terrible things. Every time, always, always’ she says to him and while he apologises we have no idea if he is really sorry that he has hurt her or just that he can’t help his own clever observations. This is a man who carries on talking to John when he’s not even there, not noticing that he has left, and talks down to everyone including John. Why would anyone stay around such a person?

Miss Adler describes them as a ‘couple’ and John’s girlfriend asks him not to make her compete with Sherlock Holmes. John repeats again as he did in the first episode of series 1 – A Study in Pink - that he is not gay. But it is clearly more than friendship that holds him to Sherlock. He admires and is impressed by Sherlock’s abilities to be sure yet is equally appalled by insensitivity and apparent lack of feelings for others.

I think John stays not just for the thrills, adventure and danger but because he is protective of a man that is vulnerable to his own cleverness. As Miss Adler proved and as John himself had to in A Study in Pink where he saved Sherlock’s life by preventing him from going too far.
Now that is love.