Mr. Holmes (2015)

MR.HOLMES  (2015)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: Bill Condon
    Ian McKellen, Laura Linney, Milo Parker,
    Hiroyuki Sanada, Hattie Morahan, Philip Davis
Ian McKellen plays Sherlock Holmes at 93, puttering around his house in the country, keeping a few hives of bees, and trying to probe his failing memory for clues to his final mystery, the case that drove him into retirement 30 years before. He's urged on in this task by a young boy, his housekeeper's son, and flashbacks show a younger Holmes (also played by McKellen) at work on the case that still baffles him in advanced old age. Laura Linney plays the no-nonsense housekeeper, who appears a little unsure about how much time her pre-teen son and this confirmed old bachelor should be spending together. The flashback mystery is serviceable, but this is really the Ian McKellen show. He's got the slow, shuffling gait, wobbly voice and sagging facial muscles of a very old man down cold, and in the scenes where his concentration wanders off, there's a sense of quiet panic. He knows he's slowly losing the one thing that more than anything else defines him: his intellect. When at one point Holmes falls out of bed, you fear he'll never get up again. Hips break, you know, and even great minds go blank. Shit happens at 93. To all of us. Even to Sherlock Holmes.