Saturday, April 08, 2017
Sherlock is nothing but a drug addict, sorry a drug user
BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH – SHERLOCK – THE
ABOMINABLE BRIDE – BBC - 2015
This story standing all by itself is original in a way
because it shifts constantly from what happens in the modern world and what
happened a century ago or more. It is nothing but the story of a wife killing
her husband but the murderess knows about the stories of the old Sherlock
Holmes and she is going to trap him in an old story indeed, that of the
abominable bride.
Sherlock shifts from one period of time to another by using
some drug, cocaine or heroin is not the point, to reach a state of
consciousness that makes him cross centuries. And he is going to solve the case
by this plying between the present and the past. He will be induced into
believed Professor Moriarty is back and he will have to go back to that special
event when he “dies” the first time in the water chute somewhere in Switzerland
within a confrontation with Moriarty there.
This visit to the past event will give him the true answer
to the question: Is Moriarty still alive? After all, why not since Sherlock
Holmes and Dr. Watson are themselves still alive. Then the present crime is nothing
but a simple riddle for primary school children that Sherlock Holmes solves in
two seconds, maybe less.
This passing from the 21st century to the end of
the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century gives
the story some dynamism and makes the suspense eventful and active. It even
enables the film to give the possibility to suffragettes of the older time to speak
their minds against the male dominated society they live in.
That’s good and entertaining. But from the outside, since we
are the audience hence outside the plot itself, it is quite common place to
suspect the wife of a murdered husband, and the situation is so simple that
there is no other suspect and no other solution. That makes the whole film an attempt
to wrap a very simplistic story into a complicated set of slips, underdresses
and dresses, and we, like mice in a big wheel of Swiss cheese, get lost in the
lace.
So this film works because we are such a good audience that
we forget to remain critical and attentive. Just what Sherlock Holmes
constantly says: keep awake, keep attentive, keep concentrated, don’t scatter
your brain power. But unluckily we do, and actually luckily for the film itself.
Dr. Jacques COULARDEAU
# posted by Dr. Jacques COULARDEAU @ 1:30 PM 
