From David Rooney’s THR Berlin Film Festival review of Bill Condon‘s Mr. Holmes (Roadside, 7.15): “[Pic] represents an agreeably old-fashioned alternative to all the modernized reinventions of Arthur Conan Doyle‘s venerable detective in recent years. Those include the television updates Sherlock and Elementary, with their contemporary attitudes, humor and gadgetry, and the overblown action-comedy film franchise, with its aggressive cartoon gloss on steampunk style.
“Mr. Holmes is a ruminative film of minor-key rewards, driven by an impeccably nuanced performance from McKellen as a solitary 93-year-old man enfeebled by age, yet still canny and even compassionate in ways that surprise and comfort him. Its emotional swell creeps up with a subtlety and grace that will make this Miramax/Roadside Attractions release appeal especially to older audiences.”
Does Rooney mean withered, drooling, crinkly, rickety, bent-over audiences who are bused down to the megaplex from an assisted-living facility, or doe he mean anyone over the age of, say, 40 or 45?
Please note that the Roadside marketing guys have eliminated the period after “Mr.” The trailer is calling the film “Mr Holmes.” This partners up with Batman v Superman — for many decades if not centuries the abbreviation of versus was “vs.” Remember M. Butterfly? By today’s system that play/film would now be called M Butterly. Who are these period haters?
