Downey, Law Shine In 'Holmes'

In the 1920s and 30s Warner Brothers Studios made its mark in the movie business with loud, gritty, urban black-and-white crime dramas. These dark, violent stories featured heroes and villains who were sometimes hard to tell apart because nearly all of them operated outside the law.
Watching Warner Brothers' new big-budget version of Sherlock Holmes you have to think that the late Jack Warner would be proud.
This film is dark, gritty, crime-ridden, urban and very violent. And you'd better pay attention because there are no white hats and black hats to tell the good guys from the baddies.
If you're expecting an update of the old Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes flicks, disabuse yourself of that notion right now.
Under the superbly inventive direction of Guy Ritchie, this is Sherlock Holmes on steroids -- tough, tenacious and very physical. Yes, the great detective is still cerebral and his approach to crime solving can be scientific but he's also witty, moody, sarcastic, provocative, flirtatious and pugnacious.
It's hard to imagine anybody but Robert Downey, Jr. as this updated, younger, sexier Sherlock. Downey is as much a swashbuckler as Errol Flynn and as dashing and charming as Clark Gable, in equal measure.
Not since Paul Newman met Robert Redford in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid have two buddies pulled off such an obvious, unabashed bromance as Downey and Jude Law as Holmes and Dr. Watson. The chemistry between the two of them defines this high-spirited London adventure. And boy are they fun to watch.
Downey's every move, every gesture and every word prove compelling. He's got so much star quality that even the crinkles around his huge, deep, dark eyes are fascinating. And Law is the perfect Redford to Downey's Newman -- a pretty boy who can't resist his more complex, more devilish, more adventurous friend.
I won't tell you too much about the mystery at the center of Sherlock Holmes but I will tell you that this is a companion piece to National Treasure and it involves Scotland Yard, the industrial revolution, the fragility of democracy, Baker Street, London's sewers, a slaughterhouse, Parliament, magic, sorcery, the Thames River, jewels, the British caste system, America's civil war, the nature of fear, Professor Moriarity and Tower Bridge.
If those things don't seem related or if this doesn't make sense to you, don't worry.
Yours is not to solve the mystery.
Yours is simply to watch and lose yourself in the story, the great production values, the marvelous cast and the grand adventure of Sherlock Holmes.
This is superb Hollywood moviemaking and surely one of the best pictures of the year.
Don't miss it!

Song Of 'The Soloist'

We caught an advance preview of the new film The Soloist earlier this week.
The movie is based on the book by former Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Steve Lopez and the book is based on a series of columns that Lopez wrote for the Los Angeles Times.
Starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx, The Soloist is about the friendship between two outcasts -- one just happens to be a journalist and the other just happens to be a homeless, schizophrenic, classical musician who once studied at Julliard.
In that respect, The Soloist is a bromance; a guy love tale between two unlikely fellas. And Foxx and Downey give understated, nuanced performances: Foxx muttering, musing and drifting; Downey letting those great, dark, magical eyes do lots of the talking. Together, they sing a soulful song of longing.
And if that were the whole story it might work.
But The Soloist is also about the haves and the have nots and about urban alienation and the emptiness of modern life. And it's about the fear of commitment and an unwillingness to return home. At the same time it's about the death of newspapers amidst our continuing search for stories and sensationalism - a search that sometimes feeds exploitation. And whether it realizes it our not, the movie is also about the hypocrisy of politicians and the failure of modern liberalism and the disdain that most elites have for what they perceive to be uncouth.
And, as Ken Shear would say: "It's also about 110 minutes."
I wish I could report to you that those 110 minutes flew by. I wish.
The performances are great and the music is downright thrilling at times.
But this film is so soaked with urban ennui and so hopelessly existential that when it tries to find a moral or a theme or anything that might pass for an anchor it just turns, shrugs and moves on to another diversion.
And that's a shame because the problems and the struggles that the movie tries to tackle are real and worthy of our attention.
Give DreamWorks and the produces and everyone involved lots of credit for taking on the subject matter. And give the actors their do for several fine performances not the list of which is Catherine Keener as the editor/former wife.
Perhaps with careful and attentive marketing The Soloist (opening April 24) may find its audience.
BTW: In the film, Steve Lopez is portrayed as divorced. However, his real life counterpart remains happily married. Lopez said that while having himself portrayed as recently single in the film was a bit weird, it was much more important to him that the film makers captured the themes of his articles rather than absolute facts.