you are the habit i can't seem to kick

[walkingshadow]

On the glorious occasion of the anniversary of her birth, silentfire and I went to see Sherlock Holmes.

Let's break this down:

❡ Robert Downey, Jr. is still the best part of every movie.

❡ Yes, even the movies in which he does not appear. Perhaps especially those.

❡ I like that it was so obviously a Guy Ritchie film, with his trademark cinematography and the stylized fight scenes. I personally liked the device of describing the action in slow motion before watching it at full speed; it was a good way of marrying Holmes's quick, detached intellect and analysis and observation to the role of Holmes as a fighter. From what I understand (and please correct me if I'm wrong!), in the books he was pretty much the Platonic ideal of the cerebral ectomorph and not very physical, but a) it's a movie, b) it's a Guy Ritchie movie!, and c) I 110% support RDJ taking off his shirt early and often.

ETA: Thanks to both smallbeer and effex for telling me that Holmes DOES canonically have expert boxing (and other fighting) knowledge and skills and could—and indeed did—get quite physical! smallbeer went on to say that Conan Doyle was himself a boxing fan, and thus fannishness begets fannishness and here we all are. \o/

❡ Oh hey, there were women in this movie! I liked both of them! Mary had agency and intelligence and humor and didn't take any shit from Holmes, and didn't play the part of the jealous girlfriend even though she would have been well within her rights. Also she ships Holmes/Watson. Irene Adler was completely faaaaabulous, I am totally in love with her. And I'm in love with the fact that she and Holmes were not a couple! Fascinated by each other, stimulated by each other, fond of each other, but not involved with each other. They were platonic equals in a way male-female leads rarely ever get to be.

❡ I've seen Jude Law in surprisingly few film roles over the past decade¹, and I guess I've always had a neutral-to-negative opinion of him, not helped by the thing with the nanny which made him out to be an enormous ass, but he was FABULOUS in this, so fabulous that I honestly forgot it was Jude Law and just saw him as Watson. And omg Watson is AMAZING. He is brilliant and beautiful and almost unbearably dapper, he has a gambling addiction and an old war wound and A SWORD IN HIS WALKING STICK, your argument is invalid!

❡ Clearly Watson is the original genius wrangler, but he is Holmes's equal: he has his own motivations and personality and he goes toe-to-toe with Holmes and sometimes he wins. Unlike today's TV geniuses², Holmes doesn't simply need Watson around to be his foil and run interference for him with the mundanes, he wants Watson around because he both likes and loves him. Leading us to:

❡ They are so gay for each other! They are so—I can't even articulate it, it's like saying THERE IS A MYSTERY IN THIS MOVIE AND THEY SOLVE IT. It was basically as canonical and textual as Holmes's drug use (which was never mentioned explicitly in the movie either, but I think a fun game on re-watch will be pinpointing all the scenes in which Holmes is high as a kite). I mean, it's basically what the entire emotional plot of the movie was ABOUT. Holmes doesn't want Watson to move out, Holmes is insanely jealous of Watson's fiancée, Holmes steals Watson's clothes so he can sleep with them under his pillow until they don't smell like him anymore. Mary says to Holmes, of Watson, "I know you care for him as much as I do," and she's about to marry the guy. By the end of the movie it seems clear that they have come to some sort of mutually agreeable polyamorous arrangement.

❡ silentfire and I actually got into a debate over whether Holmes and Watson are the most married, or whether they're merely in, say, the top three, with e.g. Jim and Blair who not only shared rooms and solved crime together, but ALSO had a spiritual telepathic soul bond, and Ray and Fraser who literally rode off into the sunset together. Perhaps this is a job for a poll!

❡ YOU MEANS US. Is this already the name of the Sherlock Holmes (2009) fic comm??

❡ Radio waves! AMAZING. I think everyone will be using them in the future.

Footnotes:

1. Including Closer, a movie about extraordinarily unlikeable characters; I ♥ Huckabees, in which he has the world's worst American accent; and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow omg lollll, a movie I had totally forgotten about until just now when I checkd his iMDB page. Also Road to Perdition, in which he was really good!


2. With the notable exception of Shawn and Gus, the only M/M (rather than M/F) genius/wrangler relationship currently on television. If you haven't already, see thelana's original post on the topic and its subsequent comments for a great exploration of the trend.

In conclusion: A++ WOULD WATCH AGAIN