Screened Out – Mr. Holmes

[five-star-rating]Ian McKellan, Laura Linney, Milo Parker[/five-star-rating]

“I cannot live without brainwork. What else is there to live for?” – Sherlock Holmes in The Sign of Four.

By playing the famous detective, Sir Ian McKellan proves again why he’s one of the greatest actors of our times.

In Mr. Holmes, England is still recuperating from WWII. The legendary detective is 93 and suffering from the worst disease that could befall him: dementia. He’s taken a trip to Hiroshima, Japan, to find a cure. He comes home to his English countryside house even more feeble and frail. Only the housekeeper (Linney) and her very bright son (Parker) are part of his life now; Dr. Watson and the original housekeeper Mrs. Hudson are dead.

McKellan’s portrayal shows us this; we humans like to think we’re such logical, sensible creatures. Yet any study in any area – philosophy, religion, theatre, science, and even mathematics – will reveal how emotional we really are. We are driven by wants and needs. We lie to ourselves by thinking we act on reason alone.

Before old age, Sherlock Holmes never fell into such traps. He calmly and coolly dissected the available empirical evidence. In that way, he was using behavioral psychology to reveal the souls of his customers and his criminals. Such a cold, methodical approach to life does come with a price – a denial of one of the very things that makes us human.

This quiet movie is based on Mitch Cullin’s book A Slight Trick of the Mind. Cullin, like many others, is inspired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s original creation.

Mr. Holmes carefully and artfully weaves three disparate storylines. One plot is a re-examination of the famous last book The Lady in Grey. Another is his trip to Japan. The third is the old man trying to put it all together as he grows more and more senile.

Until all the stories coalesce, McKellan’s stellar performance is mesmerizing.

“I’ve never have much time for fiction,” Holmes tells the boy, who becomes his trusty aide. “Fact; that’s what I’m interested in!”

Yet his once-superior mind is giving out; McKellan’s Holmes balances between brilliance and disability. His treatment of others is sometimes carelessly flippant and dry, only later to change course by a heart too big to ignore the damage he’s done, and the damage he still can do.

The genius director here is Bill Condon, the screenwriter for Chicago and the director of Dreamgirls, Linney’s Kinsey, and McKellan’s Gods and Monsters. Condon’s past work with these actors brings them together in Mr. Holmes.

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I deeply admire stories like these – where a person’s intellect and humanity must battle each other. For all his deductive power, it’s Holmes’ decency and frailty that make him an extraordinary human being.

At the heart of Mr. Holmes is 76-year-old McKellan. This portrayal is a capstone, a pinnacle performance that honors all of his other amazing moments. It seems right that it should also be Sherlock’s last great story.