I watched this film analysis yesterday (it’s the kind of thing I do), and I couldn’t remember if I’d seen the movie or not. Seriously, literally, I was struggling to recall if I’d even watched it, ever, or if I needed to head on over to my queue.
Eventually, enough of it seemed familiar that I do remember watching it. I have seen this pinnacle of intelligent writing, and yet it remains foggy, not at all memorable. It had the opposite effect compared to any Kubrick film. Any.
So, how could Sherlock Holmes 2 be the most intelligent film ever made, if it is so unmemorable?
The man doing the analysis is enamored with stacks and stacks of tedious reversals. I’m on top. No, I am. Too late, I’m back. No you’re not. It endlessly reverses itself, as if that was the entire point of the show. The movie jumps the shark every minute and a half with zero concern for plausibility. This is facile. It’s not a deep, meaningful development: it’s screenwriting trickery, and it’s cheap. The film is stuffed so fully with these that it is little else.
I did not empathize with any of the characters, as I found the characters to be less relatable people than simply marionettes dancing around the plot reversals. This inhuman nature of the characters drained it of life. Without life, without the reality of stakes and consequences that I can buy into, it’s just an overpriced, over-hyped game. Nothing more.
Now, I’m no expert on Sherlock Holmes. Perhaps this matches up with the original books. It was a different era, different expectations, and different styles.
But, if we’re going for intelligent storytelling and meaningful reversals, I’ll take A Clockwork Orange.
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J. Giambrone 