Dear Watson, 'Sherlock Holmes' is pure entertainment

Robert Downey Jr. stars as Sherlock Holmes in this latest adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous literary character, with Rachel McAdams portraying gutsy Irene Adler, Holmes' great love. Warner Bros.

The game's afoot yet again in "Sherlock Holmes," an energetic reimagining of a 19th century hero for 21st century multiplexers. As enacted with a semi-maniacal gleam in his eye by a mischievous Robert Downey Jr., this latest Holmes — never seen with a deerstalker and magnifying glass but frequently stripped down to suspenders and pantaloons, the better for bareknuckle brawling — may displease Arthur Conan Doyle purists but should find favor with audiences eager for a fun, witty action movie.

Robert Downey Jr. stars as Sherlock Holmes in this latest adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous literary character, with Rachel McAdams portraying gutsy Irene Adler, Holmes' great love. Warner Bros.

Assuming at least some audience familiarity with its title sleuth (Holmes is rivaled only by Tarzan, Dracula and Frankenstein's monster as the movies' most oft-resurrected character), "Sherlock Holmes" opens at a moment of domestic crisis for the world's greatest detective, as his best friend, Dr. Watson (handsome and spry Jude Law — a far cry from the portly fuddy-duddy portrayed by Nigel Bruce in the famous Basil Rathbone films), prepares to move out of the couple's shared flat at 221B Baker St. so he can marry Mary Morstan, played by Kelly Reilly. (The movie winkingly acknowledges, then slides by, the associations a modern audience might bring to the idea of the Holmes-Watson longtime companionship.)

On a more significant scale (the villain says he plans to "twist the very fabric of nature"), Holmes and Watson are coping with the mystery of the impossible return from the grave of the hanged serial murderer Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong), a practitioner of black magic and member of a Dan Brown-esque mystical secret fraternity of influential Englishmen who plan to reconquer the U.S. and "remake the world."

This conspiracy brings Holmes back into contact with the one love of his life, the only person ever to outmaneuver him, New Jersey femme fatale Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams), who is as quick with a knife and a punch as any of her male companions, even if the film does require Holmes to rescue her from a "Perils of Pauline" buzz saw and from the dangerous heights of the under-construction London Tower Bridge, a new addition to the Victorian urban scenery.

Also on the scene is the bumbling Scotland Yard inspector, Lestrade, played by Eddie Marsan. (Both Marsan and Reilly also can be found in another movie opening this weekend, "Me and Orson Welles.") The Baker Street landlady, Mrs. Hudson (Geraldine James), appears only briefly.

Produced by Joel Silver ("Die Hard," "Lethal Weapon") and directed by Guy Ritchie, whose English crime films ("Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels," "RocknRolla") are notable for their profanity and freneticism, the new "Sherlock Holmes" is not quite the Supersherlock or "Indiana Holmes" revamp that fans seeing the movie's trailers had feared.

As in comic book adaptations of the character, the movie — apparently digitally desaturated of much of its color to give it an unattractive and unwelcome pallor that could be described as "Victorian grime" — is faithful in detail but hopped-up in action. The script works — convincingly — to justify Holmes' athletic prowess (and the producers' need for violence); before we see Holmes overpower a much stronger opponent, we hear the detective, in interior monologue, map out his attack strategy, using his knowledge of anatomy and pressure points.

Downey's Holmes is an unkempt, impractical, almost comical eccentric, tormented by a restless, genius brain. ("Data, data, data — I cannot make bricks without clay," he complains, while searching for clues.) The movie all but announces the start date for a sequel, and — assuming Downey returns — I'm all for it. If nothing else, this "Sherlock Holmes" reminded me how nice it is to see an action film that is not riddled with profanity and gunfire.

— John Beifuss: 529-2394

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