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No, it's not canon. But it's my view that it would be redundant to make canonically faithful adaptations when Granada TV and Jeremy Brett did that a mere twenty-odd years ago. Some of the later scripts were crap, when they started trying to bulk out third-tier short stories into two-hour TV movies, but taken as a whole, I think Brett's performance and the Granada adaptations are definitive canonical translations for at least another ten years. So, someone else trying to do the same thing would be, well, silly. (And trying to make a big-screen big-budget translation of any canonical story except Hound would also be pretty silly, in my opinion.)
For something noncanonical, though, it... includes a hell of a lot of canonical pleasures. Clever deductions! Brilliant disguises! A really, really smart Watson who kicks all kinds of ass! AND KEEPS A BULL PUP! In both the literal (doggy!) and figurative (temper-losing) senses! A patriotic V. R. done in bullet holes! Geraldine James as Mrs. Hudson! (Okay, that's not a canonical pleasure, but I like Geraldine James.)
Robert Downey, Jr's Holmes is more physical than cerebral, but I appreciated that his physical assaults were preceded by a slowed down run-through of his observations of the target and plans to take advantage of the observed weaknesses, showing how his fisticuffs connected with his observations. We're told more than shown his languid periods (though in scenes with the police he does do some very Holmesian sitting-down-appearing-bored) and for the most part accompany him on a sustained burst of frenetic fact-finding energy. He's also much nicer than canon!Holmes or Brett!Holmes or certainly GregHouse!Holmes. He manipulates Watson but it's so obviously out of hunger for his company, and also so obvious to Watson - that it doesn't come across the way House's tricks usually do. RD!Holmes is cruel to Mary Morstan, but only when she goads him, and he's insulting to the police, but in a careless rather than vicious or contemptuous manner. He's more noisily, physically dangerous than emotionally dangerous to those around him. He is mean and callous with the dog, but let me state strongly that he does not TRY to kill the dog and the dog is fine after being used to demonstrate the effects of an anesthetic and a paralytic.
Jude Law's Watson is also more of an action hero than his canonical counterpart, though for him it's less of a leap, since I've always thought Watson is the one that a stranger on the street would be more likely to worry about matching in a fight. Law, I think, has had the same problem that Jeremy Brett described having himself. Brett put it as "I photographed very wetly until I had some lines on my face;" with Law I've thought of it as "he was just too damn pretty to buy as anything but a fallen angel." He's aged enough now to be simply a fine-looking man, which resurrects Watson's devil-with-the-ladies aspect, one that even David Burke didn't really access. He does a lot of deducing of his own; he's brilliant in a fight, being not merely tenacious but a generally good strategist; he obviously loves Holmes but he's not co-dependent (which would be an easy trap to fall into, and one that I think EdwardHardwick!Watson rather does). And, in a fine touch of continuity porn, he has a limp (I see they went with Sign of Fourrather than Study in Scarlet for the wound location).
Rachel McAdams' Irene Adler is like her canonical namesake only in name, nationality, skill, and the position she holds in his esteem - no Kings of Bohemia are referenced. She's more of a professional rogue than the canonical Irene, who was more of an opportunist.
I desperately, desperately loved the disguises: Holmes grabbing Watson's coat and going out the back window to tail Irene Adler and witness her meeting with his employer! AND Holmes being a doctor in the hospital where Watson's taken after the big explosion! AWESOME. And I adored the general wiliness. Holmes in the confrontation with the home secretary was delightful. I particularly loved the shot of him lounging in a corner while the HS waved his gun at the smoke.
The one thing that really, really worried me was that the plot might actually hinge on magic. I don't object to magic per se (obviously) but magic is antithetical to the Sherlock Holmes ethos and mythos. The Holmesian world is a Victorian world of scientific triumphalism; logic does rule, science will save us, human intellect can conquer everything. To undercut that with people abridging the laws of physics would be like putting a very beautifully composed and lit photograph of a sunflower in the middle of a Van Gogh - the juxtaposition wouldn't do either one any favors. So I was very pleased to hear Holmes explain how all the magic-seeming things were accomplished with science and trickery.
It's very interesting to me that while the movie was SO INTENSELY SLASHY IT MAKES S1 MERLIN LOOK LIKE STAR TREK TNG... it also included a believable heterosexual attraction for both Holmes and Watson. Well, maybe not so believable, since Mary (Sue) Morstan came after Holmes in the hospital to say "I know you love him as I do." But heterosexual attachments that the story honored, not over the Holmes/Watson bond, but alongside it. Must ponder this more.
In short, I loved it. It's not a moving, talking Paget illustration, and isn't trying to be, so if that's your Holmesian pleasure, keep on walking. But if you like Holmes, and like slash, and action movies, and like pretty women in 1880s dresses, and pretty women in 1880s suits, you may really enjoy this one.
For something noncanonical, though, it... includes a hell of a lot of canonical pleasures. Clever deductions! Brilliant disguises! A really, really smart Watson who kicks all kinds of ass! AND KEEPS A BULL PUP! In both the literal (doggy!) and figurative (temper-losing) senses! A patriotic V. R. done in bullet holes! Geraldine James as Mrs. Hudson! (Okay, that's not a canonical pleasure, but I like Geraldine James.)
Robert Downey, Jr's Holmes is more physical than cerebral, but I appreciated that his physical assaults were preceded by a slowed down run-through of his observations of the target and plans to take advantage of the observed weaknesses, showing how his fisticuffs connected with his observations. We're told more than shown his languid periods (though in scenes with the police he does do some very Holmesian sitting-down-appearing-bored) and for the most part accompany him on a sustained burst of frenetic fact-finding energy. He's also much nicer than canon!Holmes or Brett!Holmes or certainly GregHouse!Holmes. He manipulates Watson but it's so obviously out of hunger for his company, and also so obvious to Watson - that it doesn't come across the way House's tricks usually do. RD!Holmes is cruel to Mary Morstan, but only when she goads him, and he's insulting to the police, but in a careless rather than vicious or contemptuous manner. He's more noisily, physically dangerous than emotionally dangerous to those around him. He is mean and callous with the dog, but let me state strongly that he does not TRY to kill the dog and the dog is fine after being used to demonstrate the effects of an anesthetic and a paralytic.
Jude Law's Watson is also more of an action hero than his canonical counterpart, though for him it's less of a leap, since I've always thought Watson is the one that a stranger on the street would be more likely to worry about matching in a fight. Law, I think, has had the same problem that Jeremy Brett described having himself. Brett put it as "I photographed very wetly until I had some lines on my face;" with Law I've thought of it as "he was just too damn pretty to buy as anything but a fallen angel." He's aged enough now to be simply a fine-looking man, which resurrects Watson's devil-with-the-ladies aspect, one that even David Burke didn't really access. He does a lot of deducing of his own; he's brilliant in a fight, being not merely tenacious but a generally good strategist; he obviously loves Holmes but he's not co-dependent (which would be an easy trap to fall into, and one that I think EdwardHardwick!Watson rather does). And, in a fine touch of continuity porn, he has a limp (I see they went with Sign of Fourrather than Study in Scarlet for the wound location).
Rachel McAdams' Irene Adler is like her canonical namesake only in name, nationality, skill, and the position she holds in his esteem - no Kings of Bohemia are referenced. She's more of a professional rogue than the canonical Irene, who was more of an opportunist.
I desperately, desperately loved the disguises: Holmes grabbing Watson's coat and going out the back window to tail Irene Adler and witness her meeting with his employer! AND Holmes being a doctor in the hospital where Watson's taken after the big explosion! AWESOME. And I adored the general wiliness. Holmes in the confrontation with the home secretary was delightful. I particularly loved the shot of him lounging in a corner while the HS waved his gun at the smoke.
The one thing that really, really worried me was that the plot might actually hinge on magic. I don't object to magic per se (obviously) but magic is antithetical to the Sherlock Holmes ethos and mythos. The Holmesian world is a Victorian world of scientific triumphalism; logic does rule, science will save us, human intellect can conquer everything. To undercut that with people abridging the laws of physics would be like putting a very beautifully composed and lit photograph of a sunflower in the middle of a Van Gogh - the juxtaposition wouldn't do either one any favors. So I was very pleased to hear Holmes explain how all the magic-seeming things were accomplished with science and trickery.
It's very interesting to me that while the movie was SO INTENSELY SLASHY IT MAKES S1 MERLIN LOOK LIKE STAR TREK TNG... it also included a believable heterosexual attraction for both Holmes and Watson. Well, maybe not so believable, since Mary (Sue) Morstan came after Holmes in the hospital to say "I know you love him as I do." But heterosexual attachments that the story honored, not over the Holmes/Watson bond, but alongside it. Must ponder this more.
In short, I loved it. It's not a moving, talking Paget illustration, and isn't trying to be, so if that's your Holmesian pleasure, keep on walking. But if you like Holmes, and like slash, and action movies, and like pretty women in 1880s dresses, and pretty women in 1880s suits, you may really enjoy this one.
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