Mr. Holmes (Film Review)

This movie shares some themes with an earlier Bill Condon and Ian McKellen collaboration, Gods and Monsters: brilliant man in physical and mental decline near the end of his life, aware of it and fighting against it, forms bond with much younger person which helps (somewhat). And yet it's also very different, though Ian McKellen delivers a great and tremendously moving performance in both. James Whale in Gods and Monsters is in exile (so to speak) from an active director's life in Hollywood largely, the film implies, because he's an openly gay man; not directing any more certainly wasn't something he'd have chosen if he could have. Sherlock Holmes in Mr. Holmes, otoh, chose to retire as an act of self punishment, and part of what's haunting him in the movie is that he can't renember any more why, what it was about his last case that let him conclude he could no longer be a detective. Whale is overhwelmed by the memories of his youth, especially those from World War I, and part of his torment is that he can't turn them off; Holmes is tormented by the increasing loss of memory (not just long term, but short term; he's taken to writing names of the people he interacts with every day on the collars of his sleeves so he won't forget them.

At the same time, neither movie is actually pessimistic or dedicated to destroying the icons it portrays. Gods and Monsters conveys that Whale was a brilliant director, and our young pov character enjoys his movies tremendously (as opposed to, say, Joe Gillis in Sunset Boulevard, who considers having to watch Norma's old movies a drag), proving their timelessness. Whale is also witty, charming and still able to form human connections. Mr. Holmes gives us several instances of Holmes "doing his thing", as the young character, his housekeeper's son, puts it, discovering truths from minute details, and the last time he does it in the movie is the well deserved emotional climax that brings together the human connections formed and/or showcased in the movie and the attempt to use intellect and logic to provide meaning that's governed Holmes' life in a tremendous way.

The boy who befriends Holmes is played by a gifted kid, but for my money the most amazing performance next to Ian McKellen's is Laura Linney's as the housekeeper, conveying so much about her entire life just by the way she reacts in the present.

Criticism: applies only if you put this movie in the larger context of Holmesiana. First of all, backstory wise (the movie is set shortly after World War II, and Holmes is over 90, though there are also flashbacks to that last case thirty years earlier which made him retire), Watson is dead, and even worse, he died estranged from Holmes. I don't ship Holmes and Watson (in any incarnation) romantically, but of course I'm invested in their friendship, so this is distressing to me. Secondly, while some of Doyle's stories themselves contain, unless I misremember, Holmes critisizing Watson's writing of their adventures as sensationalist (i.e. Doyle makes fun of himself), it's become a trope for Holmes to do this in non Doyle written adaptions, and that I can do without, especially since many post House incarnations of Holmes are written as over the top jerks. Not this one, I hasten to add: Holmes in Mr. Holmes actually has what Doyle's Holmes has and what, say, BBC Sherlock misses, the capacity for kindness. But seriously, I could have done without yet another variation of "but I never wore the deerstalker and it didn't happen that way!" Lest I give the wrong impression, I should also make it clear that the movie doesn't imply anywhere Watson was an idiot, a la the Basil Rathbone movies, he's via backstory shown to be a good friend (when Holmes goes through the big crisis of the last case, Watson, who has moved out before, moves back in with him to help him cope with the case fallout) , and when Holmes finally allows himself for the people he lost, he names Watson first (then Mycroft, btw).

But like I said: taken as its own story, Mr. Holmes Is a gem.

January Meme: Depiction of Germans in US and British media I'm familiar with

I had stopped watching Homeland mid season 3, but the fifth season as entirely produced in and largely taking place in Germany, so I was curious and watched the season 5 opener. (Though no more of the season. Not because it was that bad, but because it gave no indication the things that made me stop watching had changed.) In it, we get this gem of a scene: Saul and the local Berlin CIA head honcho are meeting with two German officials; in a very topical as of time of production scene, they’re talking about the fallout from the NSA scandal, and post meeting a frustrated Saul tells his colleague: “I don’t get these new Germans. They used to fight like hell.”

Watching, I was tempted to say: “New” Germans? Saul, dear, I know your specialty is supposed to be the Middle East, but this statement makes me conclude you get your information about Germany and the Germans from US pop culture, which explains a lot about the CIA.

The funny thing is that the current pop culture clichés featuring Germans are a relatively recent stereotype, historically speaking. If you read 18th or early to mid 19th century French or British novels and travel guides featuring Germans, they tend to embody different stereotypes altogether: impractical, dreamy-eyed poets, distracted professors, or fat innkeepers. (Come in male and female edition.) For the non fiction version of this, see Germaine de Stael’s De L’Allemagne, for fictional examples, well, take Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth, which features the German Professor archetype complete with student nephew. (Any US movie version changed this to making the Professor a Scot. I wonder why? ;) ) Come the unification of the German principalities under the leadership of Prussia after the French-Prussian war of the early 1870s, the second Empire, and the glorification of the military that went of it, a new stereotype was born: the evil Hun. This one reached its apotheosis in WWI as far as Anglosaxon pop culture was concerned, for obvious reasons. The Weimar Republic years basically added the German sex bomb to the German tropes (the female version usually gets played by Marlene Dietrich, the male version shows up in material based on Christopher Isherwood writings), but then the Evil Hun mutated into the still most popular German stereotype ever, The Operetta Nazi. (With ample help by rl events and people.) I don’t see this one disappearing any time soon, because, as I mentioned before, World War II strikes me as the British and American ultimate role playing game. It’s a good versus evil scenario where you don’t have to worry about compromise or shades of grey because one side is out for genocide led by a megalomaniac, and I don’t think US or British creators will ever get enough of it. This being said, there is US and British media who features other variations of Germans as well. Basically, what I’ve encountered through a few decades of watching are:

a) Operetta Nazis and/or Space Nazis. Easily identifiable by shouting and hissing all the time, having bad accents and mispronouncing “Achtung” in particular. Played mostly by British actors if the production is American, unless it’s a production made in the 30s and 40s, in which case they’re played by German exiles. In case you’re wondering, I freely admit that the genuine article often were their own parody, and of course they deserve all the mocking they can get and then some. (Though I disagree with the often voiced theory that enough ridicule would have prevented the Third Reich. Hitler was mocked and parodied before he ever ruled. Didn’t help one bit.) Typical example of an Operetta Nazi: any featured in an Indiana Jones movie.

b) Nazis meant as serious character studies. Usually also get embodied by British actors. (And the occasional Irishman.) Tend to be chilling as opposed to the Operetta and Space Nazis, not least because they’re given the occasional human moment bringing the audience to the uncomfortable suspicion that they could actually know people like this. Have another Spielberg example: the non-Jewish characters from Schindler’s List, of course.

c) Honorable Opponents. Tend to show up more in WWI era movies (though not those shot during WWI), unless they’re Rommel or Stauffenberg. These tend to be tragically on the wrong side, and occasionally have relationships with British and/or American characters. Still are preferably played by British actors, with the occasional German language actor thrown in. Sometimes they even get embodied by American actors. Example: the cast of All Quiet on the Western Front (based on a German novel, but it’s still a US movie).

d) Bond villains. Are usually played by German, Austrian and Swiss actors yearning for a paid holiday (thus spoke Klaus Maria Brandauer) who are enjoying themselves by scenery chewing. Interestingly enough, while their names are German, the movies shot in the 60s avoid giving them a Nazi past (worried about the box office in Germany?), even if Fleming did, and the later ones are too far removed from World War II anyway.

e) Guilt ridden Germans. Tend to have a Nazi father or grandfather, and are often actually played by German actors. Occasionally, an Operetta (Neo)Nazi will pose as a Guilt Ridden German and be demasked. A more recent example for a genuine Guilt Ridden German would be the banker in A Most Wanted Man.

f) World War II era Jewish Characters born in Germany. I’m not saying “Germans” because Erik “Magneto” Lehnsherr would strongly protest being called one or obvious reasons, but the movie version of him is according to X Men: First Class from Düsseldorf, which makes him a Rhinelander, no less. Anyway, these characters usually are heroes with the occasional morally ambiguous type (again: Magneto) thrown in.

g) Characters who happen to be German but whose function in the plot of whichever story they’re in actually isn’t about them being German. These are still the minority and thus I am delighted whenever I come across one. Or several. Examples include: Bert Myers (shades of grey guy in Highlander: The Raven, doesn’t have a single Nazi connection in sight), Wolfgang Bogdanov in Sense8 (safe cracker by profession and with issues galore, but Wolfgang’s evil father was a Russian Mobster, not a Nazi, which for a present day Berlin guy in his 30s actually is far more likely), Agron (and all the other Germans, but Agron is a main character) in Spartacus (one half of the ( spoilery thing that delighted fans )

); Dr. Schultz in Quentin Tarantino’s Django.

Now, I’m not saying these characters are a wonder of characterization and richness and what not, and that their stories are superior to others. Absolutely not. They and their stories of origin can each be criticized for valid reasons. But, like I said: their function in the plot isn’t defined by them being German. And that’s just such a gift to German watchers. 

The other days