A trans-Euro detective adventure with 'Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows'

Probably one of the biggest coups in modern literature to film adaptations is director Guy Ritchie’s reimagining of Sherlock Holmes as a detection genius with powers of observation to rival a CSI team, AND as a streetwise, bare-knuckled brawler whose physical prowess plays equal importance to solving crime.

 

If the current generation being introduced to him thinks the Holmes character was really this scrappy, wait `til they read Arthur Conan Doyle’s books. They’re in for a surprise.

 

If you saw the first Sherlock Holmes movie (also directed by Ritchie), you’ll be familiar with Holmes’s effective use of martial arts to get out of some tight situations. In "Game of Shadows," equally as crucial is Holmes’s flair for disguises. He uses and abuses it to eavesdrop, steal from, and trail his enemies. And sometimes even friends!

 

In fact, the movie opens with Holmes (Robert Downey Jr) tailing an unsuspecting Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams) through London’s marketplace and Chinese quarters dressed as a, well, Oriental elder complete with Fu Manchu moustache. Turns out Adler’s being followed too and, as they try to evade their own stalkers, Holmes’s London is revealed to be full of grime, squalor and more immigrant cultures than you can shake a walking stick at. Like an inner city street in Manila, grit doesn’t begin to describe it.

 

“I was very keen to return to Sherlock Holmes’s world because the experience of making the first movie was so positive, both personally and creatively,” said Guy Ritchie in the movie’s media production notes. “His idiosyncrasies almost transcend description, so I wanted the opportunity to explore that more, while giving audiences something they hadn’t seen.”

 

In "Game of Shadows," the great detective and his partner, the newly married Dr. Watson (Jude Law), team up against the mad genius Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris). Global headlines of anarchists gone amok in Vienna, the death of a steel tycoon in America and other events tick off Holmes’s keen deductive powers. He sees between them a connective thread of deliberate death and destruction. But to what end? Holmes is sure of only one thing: Moriarty is behind all this.

 

This is where Downey Jr.’s Holmes and Law’s Dr. Watson version of intellect and brawn feel apt for the post-noughties age, even as "Game of Shadows" is a total Ritchie thrill ride in the vein of Snatch or Rock N Rolla. The idea that you need your fitness, smarts and trigger finger operating on the same keen edge to keep up with the sheer celerity of events doesn’t seem dated at all, even if the movie IS set in the 19th century.

 

Reinforcing this is the film's British humor: acerbic, full of self-conscious erudition, and dry as a Bombay gin on ice. It’s like macho with all the snappy returns. Holmes and Watson embody this best in their relationship. Watch out for the scene where Watson arrives at a gentleman’s club looking forward to the stag party that his best man (Holmes) was supposed to throw for him. Instead, he finds Holmes bashing his way out of an assassination attempt.

 

“I was thrilled that the connection between Holmes and Watson, as we had developed it, was still very much the heart and soul of the story,” said Jude Law.

 

The plot teeters on becoming lost in too many threads and sub-plots, though. All I was sure of as the movie progressed was that something “very bad” was happening to Europe, and it had something to do with anarchists, automatic guns and the invention of very massive artillery. This just means that the duo needs to travel out of their cozy London to France, Germany and then Switzerland in a trans-continental adventure.

 

Ultimately, it sees them uncovering the next generation of war technology. Yes, it’s a pretty long movie, too.

 

Still, the action carries the day effectively and the promise of whiz bang kaboom galore is more than satisfactory as Moriarty and Holmes fence against each other through gypsy camps and peace conferences with often heavy collateral damage–-especially on Watson’s newlywed status. They play a deadly chess, sometimes using the lives of their partners or minions. They also engage in the Eastern way of mental combat, fighting mano y mano only in their minds before the actual fight. All the violence bags the movie a rating of PG-13.

 

Watch out for Swedish actor Noomi Rapace, who shines in her first English-speaking role as Sim the gypsy fortune teller and holds her own against Law and Downey Jr in the acting department. Rapace played Lisbeth Salander, the multi-pierced surveillance expert in "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo."

 

“Sim is a street fighter,” explained Rapace. “She can punch and kick and she’s very good with knives, but when she’s thrown into a situation, she’ll grab whatever is close at hand. She’s scrappy. I like that.”

 

Notable things to look out for in "Game of Shadows" include Sherlock’s effete brother Mycroft Holmes, Irene Adler’s fate, Holmes’s kung fu versus Moriarty’s dirty boxing, the frightening power of the newly developed sniper rifle, and Holmes’s novel method of “urban camouflage.” —KG, GMA News

 

"Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows," opened January 8 in all major Metro Manila theaters.

All photos courtesy of Warner Bros Pictures.