The cutline for Bill Condon's latest reads, "The Man Behind the Myth." It might have been better put as, "The Man Behind the Mind." It's true that the film is driven by an ancient Sherlock Holmes' effort to remember the true story of the case that drove him into retirement over three decades earlier, a case that was rendered as a happy fiction by his literary chronicler Dr. Watson. But it's mind that really serves to obscure The World's Greatest Detective, because it's mind that gave him the title, the reputation, and ultimately, the isolation from the common mass of humanity that leads to his retirement. And cleverly, it's his struggle with mind — the fading, dulling, and decay of his ferocious intellect and memory — that provides occasion for the man to emerge. If that sounds abstract and hifalutin, never fear. Most of the action is occupied with, in the present, procuring nutritional aids to memory, keeping bees, making notes, and managing the help; and in the past, investigating a grieving woman's mysterious activities. A gentle, deliberate exploration of a powerful personality that has to rush a bit at the end, but doesn't quite trip over itself in the process. (2015) — Matthew Lickona
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