Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking (2004)

This film has gotten some negative reviews but I'm not certain why. This is a later, Edwardian Holmes. The period detail seems precise enough. The telephone came into common use after it was installed in Buckingham Palace by Queen Victoria, which acted as a kind of placing on of hands. Men smoked cigarettes as well as pipes and cigars, although women didn't, unless they were strong-minded aristocrats or adventurous Americans. Fingerprinting was routine.Of course Rupert Everett is neither Basil Rathbone or Jeremy Brett, but at least he's tall. The character as written more or less fits Conan-Doyle's image except at the beginning, when Holmes insults Watson and tries to get rid of him. A bit too abrasive there. And Everett's default expression seems to be a sneer.Nevertheless, all the most enjoyable aspects of the Holmes tales are present in this pastiche. True, the opening scene is a little gloomy. An opium den in London. A Chinese man is seen lighting the rolls of dope in the bowl of a pipe and the camera pans slowly up to a face we must correctly assume is Holmes'. The next scene is a shot of the Mudlarks out of Dickens, sloshing around in the black mud of the Thames, clouded by industrial smoke, and finding a woman's dead body amid the muck.Thereafter the pattern becomes more familiar. Holmes shoots up once, but it's immediately after he reaches a dead end, is waiting for evidence to appear, and advises Watson that we must "possess our souls in patience." I liked it. The budget must have been sizable. The appointments are high end and the wardrobe is lavish. But the story, while simple enough in outline, involved some complicated goings on among the aristos and there were times when I couldn't attach the names to the correct figures. I had no trouble with Rachel Hurd-Wood as the thirteen-year-old kidnapee though. (Wow.) Helen McRory as the aristocrat-in-chief gives a masterful performance a s a cold, self-contained, half-mad bitch. And Michael Fassbender is outstanding as the icy footman.Yes, it's a serial killer movie but it doesn't seem like one. Conan-Doyle could have written most of this. And the detective could have been no one but Holmes -- not Philo Vance or Nero Wolfe or Charlie Chan.

A clumsily titled original Sherlock Holmes mystery by the folks who made the far superior Hound of the Baskervilles two years earlier. There isn't anything particularly wrong with this one, there just isn't very much exciting about it. Rupert Everett's Holmes is a tall glass of lukewarm tea. It's too bad they couldn't get Richard Roxburgh to come back. A lot of people disliked his performance, but I thought it was quite good, and I appreciated his high energy approach, especially after seeing Everett in this one. Roxburgh has way more 'it.' This film is bolstered (and largely carried by) Ian Hart's excellent turn as Dr. Watson. Also in the cast are the always terrific Jonathan Hyde, Rachel Hurd-Wood, and Michael Fassbender, who gets a lot of juice out of his role as a valet. Neil Dudgeon, as Lestrade, does the same thing that we've seen 50 other actors do. There's never any real mystery here as to who's committing the murders and how; in fact, the whole film feels like a police procedural -- Holmes using the telephone, chain smoking cigarettes, doing most of his casework from Scotland Yard HQ (!) and lecturing everyone on the importance of fingerprints. The locations, sets, and costumes look good, though some large scenes feel cramped in the available space. Worth watching once, but on the whole it's a Holmes film that ranks somewhere in the (lower) middle of the pack.

So this will be a spoiler in itself, but I didn't like the disagreeable character portrayed by Mr. Everett, nor the little quarrels with dr. Watson and Mrs. Hudson in the first minutes of its running time. But I left when the bourgeois family of high-society girls appeared for the first time. Holmes is a great Victorian invention, but I had the feeling that from Victorianism this made-for-TV film would only retain the china and affected manners, not the charm! And in fact, previous reviewers state that this is "much darker" than usual. Dark -- an adjective I once loved and now almost pity! Not for hardcore Sherlockians, perhaps, this could be recommended to any other lost soul.

The character of English writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes is probably one of the most popular invented detective. He is very calm and has very cool attitude when he's trying to solve a murder. This movie will help you to like even more this brilliant detective. It's mostly because of the actor Rupert Everett who is very good in this roll. Also I have to say something about script. It's not the best that it can be, but it's good, because you cannot understand who is the murder till' the end. This movie takes place in London, where someone is killing young ladies from rich families. This case is been given to the best detective on the world,Sherlock Holmes. He has help from his friend Dr.Watson and from Watson's fiancée Mrs.Vandeleur. This movie is good because of the actors and script. Again I have to mention Rupert Everett who proved that he is very good actor. Also Ian Hart played well as Watson. Please look this movie with patience and watch a good performance from a fine actor.