This movie is excellent. Much more so than the other reviews of it I’ve read. Perhaps it’s too smart for the average viewer. Not that I would expect less from Guy Ritchie. Snatch is one the smartest movies I’ve seen, and the lesser known (and more recent) Revolver is even more so. This movie is very smart. In places, the dialogue moves quite quickly. Those not comfortable with rapid Brit-speak may find this difficult, but that serves simply as a reason to go again. A British movie that came out earlier this year, called In The Loop, may have suffered from this. I intend to buy that movie and watch it several times with subtitles until I understand the whole thing, because it honestly may be one of the funniest movies of the decade. I’m not sure. But I will say that as obsessed as America is with faster cars, faster internet, faster everything, we speak our version of English more slowly than just about every other culture speaks their language on the planet.

Which brings us back to Holmes. The dialogue is fast and clever. The action is equally as fast and equally as clever. The plot is of the most excellent sort. The acting was very good, better than that even. Robert Downey Jr. continues to astonish, this time immersing himself in a British role very naturally. Jude Law has less of a difficult time with the whole British thing, but I was quite impressed at how well he played a supporting role. It is interesting to think that three years ago, this movie would have been cast in reverse, with Law as Holmes and Downey Jr. as Watson. It might not have worked as well. I think it took time for Robert Downey Jr. to become a great actor again. And he is. He is an almost singular talent in our era, funny, serious, charismatic. He does voice-over, he tells a story without words at all. Not an award-winning role by any means, but a powerful one.

One-line review: An incredible holiday movie, highly recommended.

Consensus: 85/100