bob-1135
What a load of incomprehensible claptrap! Ian McKellen is a very good actor but this was full of very good actors that were not even given one minutes screen time. It is hailed as the mystery of his last case - what last case? There was no mystery as to what happened.
And as for Holmes visiting a remarkable undamaged Nagasaki only two years after the atomic bomb - what? In fact you could have cut the whole Japanese content and made not a jot of difference to the film.
This was just a shabby attempt to lure people using the Sherlock Holmes angle, and it turned into a maudlin heap of nothing.
Ed
The, perhaps most gifted, classical actor of today, Sir Ian McKellen stars in this film about the most famous fictional detective ever created, who tells us himself, towards the end of the canonical stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, that when Sherlock Holmes retired he became a beekeeper. (Several stories occur during and after his retirement.) In addition to McKellen, Laura Linney, with a sometimes shaky British accent, plays Holmes' housekeeper Mrs. Munro and Milo Parker plays her young son Roger, Holmes' young follower and admirer.Mention should be made of Nicholas Rowe who famously played young Sherlock many years ago but, in this film, he is in a brief satiric "matinee movie" scene, a nice touch.The similarities to the earlier film "Gods and Monsters" (1998) in which the same star, Ian McKellen, played the director James Whale, of the original Frankenstein films, is also not accidental with the story having to do with the final days of that director surrounded by real and fictional characters. It had the same director Bill Condon, as well.Based on the Mitch Cullin novel, A Slight Trick of the Mind, Holmes here is gradually losing his memory and can't recall the facts of his last case and Watson's account of it he finds untrustworthy. But since Watson is described as rarely being around at this time, I can only wonder if Watson would have written that account.
barneypackard
I was searching for a little bit different. Ian is a great actor. Perfect the part of a 93 year old Sherlock Holmes. Using natural remedies, notes, to keep track of what he needs to know. This is a great lesson in dealing with aging, when you can't quite do what you used to be able to do. He is dealing with several things, multi-tasking, and retreats to his farm. There he takes a young boy under his wing, and is inspired by and mentoring at the same time. Ian and Milo are both exceptional;they aren't acting they are BEING their characters. I deduce that mentoring took place off screen as well as on. The twists, turns, sub plot with the mother, te bees, all makes for a compelling story.
marldurn
My first attempt at watching this movie never got off the ground, so I sort of wrote it off as not worth it. Later another opportunity came along, so I decided to give it a second chance. I must say that as the movie progressed it drew me in more & more. As the ending neared, the story felt so real & heartwarming...this made me very glad that I had decided to watch it after all.
AD
