Holmes and Watson thoughts
1. X-posted from Flewelling.yahoo: LOL! Modern readers have been reading (or misreading) a slashy subtext into Holmes and Watson's relationship for decades. I suppose the movie will be a real shot in the arm to what is probably a substantial body of fan fic. I've never read it that way myself, and I've read those books and stories many, many times. The friendship is definitely there, and there are wonderful flashes of it from the normally cerebral Holmes, as in The Hound of the Baskervilles, or "The Devil's Foot," as well as comic moments of annoyance from Watson at Holmes's less than admirable habits. So the "old married couple" dynamic does hold water. But actual implied romance? No. I have nothing against slashers, mind you, but certain friendship relationships in fiction, including Holmes and Watson and Sam and Frodo, are so pure and perfect that I hate to see them changed to anything else. But that's just me.
2. The movie: The more I think about the movie, the less satisfied I am with the portrayal of Holmes. It's as if he's stuck in one of his manic phases for the entire time and since he is central to the movie, it changes the flavor of everything. He spends so much time in fist fights. I liked the "pre-planning" sequences they used for those, but would like to have seen the same applied to him deducing from pieces of evidence. We only get a few seconds of it at the very end, done so quickly that you could miss it, and it certainly isn't given much attention, just a few phrases thrown out before they return to the melee.
So many of the changes they made, including his clearly physical relationship with Irene, were so much the antithesis of the "book" Holmes, that in the end I think about all that really remained of poor Holmes was the name. I still think it was a fun movie, but give me Jeremy Brett any day.
2. The movie: The more I think about the movie, the less satisfied I am with the portrayal of Holmes. It's as if he's stuck in one of his manic phases for the entire time and since he is central to the movie, it changes the flavor of everything. He spends so much time in fist fights. I liked the "pre-planning" sequences they used for those, but would like to have seen the same applied to him deducing from pieces of evidence. We only get a few seconds of it at the very end, done so quickly that you could miss it, and it certainly isn't given much attention, just a few phrases thrown out before they return to the melee.
So many of the changes they made, including his clearly physical relationship with Irene, were so much the antithesis of the "book" Holmes, that in the end I think about all that really remained of poor Holmes was the name. I still think it was a fun movie, but give me Jeremy Brett any day.