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Title: Simply Dreadful...
Review: Rupert can be such a funny and wonderful actor--e.g. in the recent magical version of AN IDEAL HUSBAND. But Oscar Wilde is not Arthur Conan Doyle. And, Rupert, you are no Jeremy Brett here. Not that he really had to be. But to play Sherlock--pastiche or not--with absolutely no intensity, no intellectual vigor, no excitement--is to kill the main characteristics of Holmes. Rupert seems to be slumming here--lots of posing and looking mournful--and makes the detective the last thing he should be...ordinary.A well-mounted production in many senses. Good character actors in support. A modernized story with fingerprinting and sexual perversion. But, without a believable Holmes, who cares? To make matters worse, Watson and Holmes seem much too young here. Watson is too short. And the relationships among Holmes, Watson and Mrs. Hudson are nowhere near as close and warm and devoted as they should be.This production is just terribly misbegotten.
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