I love Sherlock Holmes. It's true, anyone who knows me can testify to the fact. The problem is that I'm quite fussy when it comes to how he's portrayed on screen, if it ain't got Jeremy Brett in it chances are I'll find plenty to find fault with. So, it came as something of a surprise to find that I really enjoyed this film.

The basic idea is nothing especially new. A serial killer is on the loose, targeting the eligible young daughters of the aristocracy - and unless he can be tracked down and locked up he will continue to kill. It's got all the traditional Holmes elements - Lestrade's bungling about, Mrs Hudson's horror at the perpetual mess in her lodger's rooms, Holmes' supreme arrogance that he and only he can solve the case… you get my drift. What sets this adaptation apart is that Holmes is proved to be only human and the focus on character interaction, something all important to the modern murder mystery. Whilst the plot may seem a little far fetched you only have to think of the milk drinking snake in Conan Doyle's "The Speckled Band" to realise it's actually well within the realms of possibility!

So, anyway, off Watson toddles to find Holmes, it doesn't take too long, he's busy being sulky and striding impressively around the streets of London. It's obvious from the off that there's something up between him and his "Boswell" as Holmes is exceedingly horrid to Watson. For example he tells him he reeks of the morgue, instructs the waitor of the café they arriveat to ignore him and when Watson describes the case Holmes is scathing, saying that he's only tracked him down to gather more sensationalist material for his novels and suggests, "why don't you do what you usually do...make them up". This goes deeper than the usual "Watson's made a mockery of my lovely logical crime detection methods" strop; and the real reason behind his actions soon becomes apparent. Watson has abandoned Holmes to get engaged!

Next follows the obligatory Holmes telling Lestrade and his herd of trampling policemen off for obliterating valuable evidence with their size nines scene. Lestrade (Neil Dudgeon, currently playing a postie in the BBCs new drama "Sorted") follows Holmes out onto the balcony where Holmes determines that the girl was abducted, by a man she most probably knew, and was carried across the rooftops. Everyone in the house has to undergo fingerprinting whilst Holmes goes off to a dinner date with Watson and his fiancée. However it's not long before it's discovered that another girl, Lady Georgina Massingham (Jennifer Moule), has gone missing. Holmes again establishes that the girl was abducted and carried across the rooftops in the London fog, and as he's leaving tells Watson that the girl is certainly already dead. When the body is later discovered, hanging from a lamppost with a stocking round her neck it becomes clear that there's a serial killer (or as Lestrade puts it, a multiple murderer) on the loose…

Watson's fiancée was, for me, the only down point in this film. For some reason best known to the BBC Watson has met an American psycho-analyst (Jenny Vandeleur, played by Helen McCrory) whilst skiing in Switzerland (apparently alone? Why wasn't Holmes there?). To me it smacks of a sop to the American audience the BBC were hoping to flog this to. She seems to be too forward in her manners for an Edwardian woman (even an American!), presuming to be on first name terms with Holmes from the moment she meets him and happily puffing away on a cigarette in front of both he and Watson. Even more jarring is the obvious unlikelihood of a female psycho-analyst in 1902. Mary Morstan she most certainly isn't. This aside she's a fairly likable character, even if she is the one wearing the trousers in her and Watson's relationship. It's Jenny that attracts Holmes' attention to the fetishist nature of the murders and gives him her copy of Krafft-Ebbing's "Psychopathia Sexualis" in a genuinely funny scene where Holmes' eyebrows threaten to make a break for escape over his hair line as she lists all the sexual perversions detailed within.

There remains but one thing to mention - the casting of Rupert Everett to play Holmes. I've read some really critical of his performance in this that I totally disagree with. He may not have the character Brett brought to the role or the energy Rathbone had, but, nevertheless he plays a brooding melancholy Holmes perfectly. Plus, Everett is significantly better looking than most versions of the great detective; as my dad so eloquently put it when he saw it, "he's too good looking to be Sherlock Holmes". A sore point for Sherlockian dads it may be, but good news for the rest of us! Physically he matches the description of Holmes, and excels in the scenes where Holmes is despondent at his schemes falling apart - and in the drug taking sequences that invariably follow. He's a big imporvement on Richard Roxborough (played Holmes in the BBC version of Hound of the Baskervilles) who was somewhat too eccentric in the role. I'd never heard of Everett before seeing this, but was impressed enough to remember the guy's name. If that's not praise I don't what is! :)

DVD information:
Running time - 97 minutes, the story plays out well in this time frame, allowing enough time for loose ends to be tied up without overly noticeable rushing.
Certificate - 15
Language - English, with optional English subtitles.
Extras - Commentary by Simon Cellan Jones (the director) and Elinor Day (the producer).