Sherlock holmes a game of shadows
The disappointment really is that Noomi Rapace, as the fortune teller and subsequent sidekick, Sim, doesn’t have anywhere near enough to do. Some of his scenes contain more gratuitous gags that don’t really do Fry’s brand of intelligent and subtle humour justice. Stephen Fry acts as an element of more traditional comic relief as Holmes’ older brother Mycroft, although at times he feels a little underused. It certainly feels like they are working more as a double act than a tutor and student, an inequality that I think was present in the first film. Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law as Holmes and Watson respectively have really developed as a pairing, and you get the sense that there truly is a deep friendship and level of understanding and respect between them, that you want to be a part of.
In fact, the performances of all the main cast are great pretty much throughout. There is a sense of calm and concentration as the pair are simply indulging the audience in an acting masterclass, and it serves as a very welcome relief from the overblown nature of the opening scenes. And some of the best scenes in the film are when Harris and Downey Jr are pitching against each other in a battle of wit and cunning. Harris plays Professor Moriarty, a criminal mastermind who is, of course, the arch nemesis of Robert Downey Jr’s Sherlock Holmes. Within the first act of the film however, you become aware of a shining beacon of hope, and it is shaped in the form of Jared Harris. As the opening credits finally began, I was already feeling pretty let down. The action only subsides momentarily for some of the most awkward and needlessly exaggerated comedy acting I have seen in a long while. We are treated to a small piece of exposition in a voice over from Dr Watson (Jude Law), before a sudden launch into a ludicrous fight sequence that has a needless slow motion build up, before hurtling into the same stomach churning, accelerated editing and overblown choreography.