When I first heard that Ian McKellen was going to do Sherlock Holmes, I though to myself WHY, WHY, WHY...
There's several variations on Sherlock Holmes solving various mysteries from Basil Rathbone and the Hound of the Baskervilles to the TV versions on PBS and CBS. Even the ill-fated CONSTANTINE was patterned after Sherlock Holmes.
However, This is not the average Sherlock Holmes story.
Rather it is a memoir of an aged Sherlock Holmes trying to remember why he quit the detective business. It is 1947 and Holmes has retired to some country place and is struggling to remember why. His housekeeper (a WW2 Widow) has a young boy (who is a brilliant actor) who befriends the recluse Holmes and shows him how to live again.
Holmes has some fun takes on the "Sherlock Holmes of the Novel" of the invention of MyCroft Holmes.
And a Japanese Gentleman who convinced Homes to visit Japan for some form of ash and Hiroshima dust tea that will restore his memory.
And there lies a mystery of the woman in blue who was and Holmes' fate.
An excellent but a sad and moving story.