MR. HOLMES IS due for release this weekend.
The film finds director Bill Condon reteaming with actor Ian McKellen to offer a story set in the last years of the famous detective. The last time that Condon and McKellen collaborated, Condon took home an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay on Gods and Monsters. (McKellen had to settle for a nomination.)
Although the screenplay nods towards the classic stories, Mr. Holmes seems far removed from the pulpy adventures written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The film leaps between three different time periods, as Holmes struggles to retain his mental faculties and to remember the details of his last case.
Those looking for a conventional “whodunit” Sherlock Holmes mystery might best look elsewhere. For this retired version of Holmes, human nature remains the biggest mystery of all. The character’s deductive prowess is on display, but there are few crimes to be solved. The mystery is more intimate.
A nuanced sketching of an iconic character
“My version of Holmes is a highly metaphorical creation that, at the time, was used by me as a way to better understand my own father’s struggle with dementia,” explained Mitch Cullin, author of the book that inspired the film, “and so in that regard the two versions are almost unrelated.”
Still, while this version of Sherlock Holmes might seem at odds with the character who appeared in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s original stories, it is not an atypical portrayal in modern Holmes stories.
Among the most frequent deviations from the “canon” in contemporary adaptations are those centred around the character of Holmes rather than the mysteries that he investigates. Most obviously, modern adaptations are particularly in the dynamic between Holmes and Watson, as evidenced by the emphasis put on Watson’s marriage in more modern takes.
Honing in on the politics of relationships
In Doyle’s original stories, Watson’s external attachments were handled very much as the plot demanded. He was engaged to Mary Morstan in The Sign of the Four. However, when Doyle resurrected Holmes, he quickly killed Morstan off-page so that Holmes and Watson could go back to living together in The Adventure of the Empty House.
(It appears that Watson did eventually receive a happy ending. Doyle announced that Watson was married by the time of The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier, but the story was so disinterested in the development that Watson’s spouse received no name or description.)
In contrast, modern adaptations tend to stress the impact of Watson’s marriage on his relationship to Holmes. In Mr. Holmes, the marriage leaves Holmes facing his biggest case alone. In Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes, the looming marriage leaves Sherlock jealous. The third season of Sherlock found the lead character adjusting to his partner’s wife-to-be.
Doyle’s famous detective might have originated in the pages of pulp magazines, but he has lived a long and varied life. He has crossed over with characters as diverse as Jack the Ripper, Basil the Great Mouse Detective, and even Batman.
Doyle was keenly aware of his creation’s life beyond those original stories. While preparing a stage adaptation, William Gilette cabled Doyle to ask if he could marry Holmes off. Doyle famously responded, “You may marry him, or murder, or do what you like with him”.
More focus on character than mysteries
Holmes has become an incredibly flexible character. He has been transported across space and time, sometimes both at once. Elementary imagines Holmes working in modern day New York, while House drew on the character for its protagonist.
Modern adaptations of Sherlock Holmes tend to focus more on the character than on the mysteries. Steven Moffat and Matt Gatiss’ Sherlock is perhaps the most obvious example of a contemporary character-driven Holmes story.
“We wanted to bring him out of the faux-Victorian fog and see him for what he is,” Moffat explained of his take on the character.
Appropriately enough, Mr. Holmes catches its central character at a moment of global transition. His last case unfolds in the wake of the Great War. His later adventures unfold in the aftermath of the Second World War. The world is changing around the Victorian icon.
As such, Holmes is faced with his own existential crisis. As much as Holmes struggles to understand other people, there is also a sense that he is trying to figure out his own place in the new world order.
With new interpretations of Holmes, we are allowed space for reflection
Then again, these are the joys of adaptation. Revisiting and exploring classic stories over and over might seem a cynical exercise steeped in nostalgia, but it does allow for reflection and analysis. If the story stays (very roughly) the same, the beats that we emphasise and the changes we make offer a glimpse into the moment itself.
Does the contemporary fascination with Holmes as an emotionally distant mystery at the expense of the mysteries themselves speak to contemporary obsession with celebrity? Is the current fixation on the relationship between Holmes and Watson a vehicle for exploring the contradictions and riddles of modern masculinity? Is Holmes’ academic brilliance but difficulty relating to other people a sign of a deeper personality dysfunction?
Perhaps that is the key to the character’s enduring success. The game is afoot, but the rules can change. Holmes might have a reputation for finding the desired answers, but the key is his ability to ask the right questions.
Darren Mooney has a movie blog, them0vieblog.com . You can get in touch with Darren here. To read more articles by Darren for TheJournal.ie click here.
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