DVD OF THE WEEK

SHERLOCK HOLMES ****
Starring: Robert Downey Jr, Jude Law, Mark Strong Dir: Guy Ritchie

Many devotees of Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional literary detective were miffed by this modern retooling of the world's most famous sleuth. Sherlock Holmes is a man of observation and logic they said, when did he develop such an unhealthy interest in fisticuffs?
I guess when Guy Ritchie decided to move from modern day gangsters to Victorian London and, if you can forgive the less than faithful approach, there is a lot of fun to be had, the chief one being the relaxed, knowing, and never less than charming relationship between Robert Downey Jr's roguish Holmes and Jude Law's faithful Watson. It is this dynamic, affectionate and slightly camp, that the film rides on and it works beautifully.
Downey is great. If you saw his recent turn in the Iron Man sequel you will be surprised at how immersively different he is here, absolutely nailing both an English accent and that subtly different delivery of the English which has always eluded Johnny Depp. The script also attempts to work Holmes deductive genius into the fight scenes, at least setting up an approach that chimes with his cerebral prowess.
The film's only real weakness comes from its plot, which is both a little pedestrian – it feels like a set-up for a sequel – and allows the audience to get ahead of its characters, leading to a somewhat anticlimactic resolution. But if the story is at once too complex and too simplistic, the period setting, snappy direction and buddy cop leanings more than compensate and create a valiant effort at a Sherlock Holmes update for action cinema times.

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (**/****) is a strange proposition. What benefit comes from association with a little-known decade-old cult movie notable for its harrowing unpleasantness and general excesses? What is legendary German filmmaker Werner Herzog doing in the director's chair? Is it a loose remake or an unconnected sequel? The answers are dunno, dunno and dunno. But it's a delirious spectacle, so over the top that Nicolas Cage's unhinged performance fits right in. His titular cop spirals out of control in a blizzard of drugs and bad debts, hallucinating iguanas(!) and trying to appease his junkie hooker girlfriend. The two ratings reflect the possibility of enjoying this in a 'so bad it's good” way, possibly the only option given the bizarre ending.

Peter Jackson is a consummate filmmaker and The Lovely Bones (***) is a very impressive film. I keep running into people putting off seeing it because they fear it will wreck a book they loved. Fear not. This is an adaptation as faithful as any film should be and many of the omissions (the careful handling of the central death for instance) are necessary for the different impact of the medium. The performances, save for an out of his depth Mark Wahlberg, are good and the CGI generated afterlife is a wonder of digital creation. But it's this afterlife that is the problem, detracting from the human drama and sometimes straying dangerously close to saccharine overkill.

The Brothers Bloom (****) is a sweet little conman caper, not a period piece despite the look of the cover, but with design trappings that give it a timeless look. Mark Ruffalo and Adrien Brody are good as the conman brothers with childhood issues and the ever-fascinating mechanic of the con is well explored. Rachel Weiss brings the lightest of touches to her kooky heiress role and if there are a few plot holes along the way and the ending doesn't fully satisfy then at least the ride is light and breezy.

Some films aim high but rarely do they miss as many marks as Nobel Son (**) which (I think) plans to be a comedy thriller but forgets the comedy and has such a bewilderingly twisting plot and overwhelming desire to fulfil its quirkiness quotient that it loses any thrills. There is a good cast, headed by a despicably egotistical Alan Rickman, but they rather get lost in the confusion.