Practical, but limited

Guy Ritchie’s recent film won’t please the purists, but Robert Downey’s Sherlock Holmes is close to Arthur Conan Doyle’s original.

Young Stamford looked rather strangely at me over his wine-glass. ‘You don’t know Sherlock Holmes yet,’ he said; ‘perhaps you would not care for him as a constant companion.’

— A Study in Scarlet,
Arthur Conan Doyle

These were prescient lines, though perhaps Conan Doyle didn’t realise how well they would apply to his relationship with the detective he created. A Study in Scarlet came out in 1887; by 1891, Conan Doyle was sick of Sherlock, confessing that he thought often of slaying the sleuth. He killed off Holmes in 1893, but had to bring him back after a public outcry. It’s a classic instance of how the loyalty of fans can far outstrip the loyalty of the creator to his creation.

From the first, fast-paced opening scenes of Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes, it’s clear that his film isn’t your average canon fodder. Robert Downey’s rippling muscles and abs, the flimsy, implausible plot, the camp approach to Sherlockiana: this is far removed from the cold-eyed, cerebral Holmes of the deerstalker and meerschaum pipe years. (It’s worth mentioning that the pipe was a later addition, from the stage performances rather than the stories.)

“His very person and appearance were such as to strike the attention of the most casual observer. In height he was rather over six feet, and so excessively lean that he seemed to be considerably taller. His eyes were sharp and piercing, save during those intervals of torpor to which I have alluded; and his thin, hawk-like nose gave his whole expression an air of alertness and decision. His chin, too, had the prominence and squareness which mark the man of determination.” — Watson on Holmes, A Study in Scarlet.

This was Jeremy Brett’s Sherlock to a T, but not, shall we say, Holmes as played by Leonard Nimoy. (The only way to describe the former Spock as Sherlock is to say it was an extraordinary performance, and leave it at that.) Robert Downey is impish, clowning around in the role as demanded by Ritchie’s script, a cross between Jason Bourne and 007 in one of the more baroque Ian Fleming scripts. Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes is an improbable romp through Victorian England, complete with hansom cab chases, down-and-dirty boxing matches and gloomy shipyards, featuring a villain based on the occultist Aleisteir Crowley. This is Holmes, the action adventurer, not Holmes, the man of keenest insight.

But Downey’s lithe, light-footed, light-headed approach to the role isn’t as far removed from the Holmes of the canon as it may seem on first viewing. The relationship between Downey’s Sherlock and Jude Law’s Watson is exaggerated, compared to the Holmes-Watson relationship in the stories, but it’s pardonable camp.

Law does Watson a service, in fact, rescuing Sherlock’s sidekick and amanuensis from his status as bumbling admirer who must play straight man to Holmes’ genius. By focusing on Watson’s military service — he was injured in Afghanistan and has all the hallmarks of the veteran soldier, plus being a medical man — Law returns some dignity to his figure. And Ritchie’s focus on the squabbling, sulking, flouncing relationship between Downey and Law takes it way beyond camp — this is an inside look at gay marriage, even if it proves that it will be just as trying as the hetero kind.

“SHERLOCK HOLMES — his limits.
1. Knowledge of Literature. — Nil. 2. Philosophy. — Nil. 3. Astronomy. — Nil. 4. Politics. — Feeble. 5. Botany. — Variable. Well up in belladonna, opium, and poisons generally. Knows nothing of practical gardening. 6. Geology. — Practical, but limited. Tells at a glance different soils from each other. After walks has shown me splashes upon his trousers, and told me by their colour and consistence in what part of London he had received them. 7. Chemistry. — Profound. 8. Anatomy. — Accurate, but unsystematic. 9. Sensational Literature. — Immense. He appears to know every detail of every horror perpetrated in the century. 10. Plays the violin well. 11. Is an expert singlestick player, boxer, and swordsman. 12. Has a good practical knowledge of British law.” — From “Watson’s Notes”, A Study in Scarlet.

Ritchie’s film won’t please Baker Street Irregulars who prefer their Sherlock in his more cerebral avatar, and the fast-paced action adventure format also makes it terribly generic. This will probably be one of the more entertaining but never iconic Holmes films, but even the most rabid Sherlockian would have to admit that Downey sticks to the Holmes of the stories.

Everything’s here, even the addiction: Holmes in the film adds alcohol addiction to his coke habit, and has the golden arm of the classic junkie. Downey’s superlative boxing skills are alluded to in the stories, and it’s worth reminding readers of the manic energy Watson notices on his very first meeting with Holmes in a chemistry lab. Also that Holmes has a reputation for “beating the subjects in the dissection room”, to see what marks the bruises make on corpses. This, in the final verdict, is Downey’s Holmes: practical, but limited, as Watson noted.