Duo take a step back with Holmes
Holmes and Watson (R13, 90 mins) Directed by Etan Coen Reviewed by Graeme Tuckett ★★
Iguess with so many stunning and original movies out there competing for your dollar in the last days of 2018, it’s only fair that there should be at least one option that’s trading proudly on its unoriginality, formulaic script and basic, underlying stupidity. For everything there is a season, etc.
It’s not that writer/director Etan Cohen (Get Hard) has made a bad film. It’s just frustrating that Holmes and Watson has a handful of moments of genuine comic lunacy – a seconds-long Elephant Man cameo is inspired – but all they really do is highlight the laziness and lack of laughs in the rest of the film.
Holmes and Watson is a parody of every Sherlock Holmes in general and the Benedict Cumberbatch and Robert Downey Jr iterations in particular.
As Holmes, Will Ferrell never quite nails the character. His Holmes mocks, but never succeeds in really skewering the ludicrousness of Conan Doyle’s creation.
Cumberbatch and Downey Jr have already deflated the worst of Holmes’ pomposity and lack of self awareness, leaving Ferrell without much real estate to claim as his own. Carrying a scene by himself, Ferrell often flounders. Far more successful – as is often the way in a Will Ferrell project – are the support acts.
John C Reilly is game as Watson, although mostly hobbled by having to be Ferrell’s foil.
But Rebecca Hall (Frost/Nixon), Kelly Macdonald (Trainspotting) and especially Lauren Lapkus (Orange is the New Black) bring the film sputtering to life whenever they are on screen.
The few times I heard a sustained laugh from the audience usually involved Lapkus and Hall in some possibly improvised bit of nonsense away from the action.
Lapkus’ Millie – ‘‘She was raised by cats, mental age of 4’’ – pretty much deserves a film of her own.
Filling in the gaps, a Rolodex of the usual Brit suspects – Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon, Ralph Fiennes, etc – are probably all happy to have cashed the cheque without ever really working for it.
In the great pantheon of Will Ferrell movies, Holmes and Watson will sit far below Elf, Anchorman, Blades of Glory and The Other Guys.
If you like the sound of it, chances are you’ll head home happy enough.