Review Roundup: Ian McKellen Takes on Iconic Detective in MR. HOLMES

Ian McKellen stars in a new take on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic character Sherlock Holmes. In MR. HOLMES, Holmes is aged and retired and looking back on his life with reflection while he grapples with an unsolved case involving a beautiful woman.

MR. HOLMES was based on the novel by Mitch Cullin and was directed by Bill Condon and written by Jeffrey Hatcher.

MR. HOLMES stars Ian McKellen, Laura Linney, Milo Parker, Hiroyuki Sanada, Hattie Morahan, and Patrick Kennedy.

Let's see what the critics had to say!

A. O. Scott, The New York Times: The film's plots are soft and flimsy, and they don't mesh as gracefully as they might, but they do serve as an adequate trellis for Mr. McKellen's performance, which is gratifyingly but unsurprisingly wonderful. With his craggy visage and papery diction, his Holmes is a study in wry, intellectual charisma.

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Don't think you can take another Hollywood version of Sherlock Holmes? Snap out of it. Apologies to Robert Downey Jr. and Benedict Cumberbatch, but what Ian McKellen does with Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional detective in Mr. Holmes is nothing short of magnificent.

Scott Foundas, Variety: After hitting a couple of commercial highs ("Dreamgirls," "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn") and one major artistic low ("The Fifth Estate") in the major-studio trade, Bill Condonmakes a welcome return to more intimate, character-based fare in "Mr. Holmes," an elegiac portrait of the once-great detective as a senescent old man - arthritic of body and foggy of mind, yet unwilling to go gently into that good night. A graceful film that seems happy to proceed at roughly the pace of the honey that drips from its central character's apiary, this faithful adaptation of Mitch Cullin's 2005 novel "A Slight Trick of the Mind" may disappoint audiences seeking a ripping good Sherlock Holmes mystery, but should delight genre buffs fond of such earlier revisionist Holmes yarns as "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution" and "Young Sherlock Holmes," and even attract some younger viewers curious to see the old guy from "Lord of the Rings" and "X-Men" (aka Ian McKellen) slip into the skin of the world's most famous sleuth. The newly rehabilitated Miramax should see profitable arthouse returns from its planned 2015 release in partnership with Lionsgate subsidiary Roadside Attractions.

Mark Kermode, The Guardian: Like its eponymous hero, the film drifts in and out of focus as it sifts through its deck of memories, a touch broad here, a little undercooked there, sometimes satirical, more often whimsical. Yet Jeffrey Hatcher's script neatly ties together the interplay between myth and memory - both unreliable and malleable - while McKellen nurtures his character's changing nature with affection and grace.

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Bill Condon's "Mr. Holmes" is a delightful if somewhat minor addition to the supersleuth's ever-growing film and TV canon, providing a smashing role for Ian McKellen as a 93-year-old Sherlock trying to solve his final mystery in post-World War II England.

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: The elegiac, stately quality to "Mr. Holmes" is one of its pleasures, as is McKellen's measured performance. But the film, based on the recent book "A Slight Trick of the Mind," is missing a compelling mystery and a real resonance from it. The emotional ripples it sends through time are sincerely felt, and the metaphor of Holmes' beekeeping - and the presence of wasps that endanger the balance of things - is intriguing. But the film is only watchable because of McKellen's deft acting magic.

Stephanie Merry, The Washington Post: Directed by Bill Condon ("Kinsey"), the movie leaps back and forth in time, incorporating another thread involving Holmes's recent trip to Japan in search of a rare plant to cure his dementia. Like any good Sherlockian case, the stories interweave into a satisfying conclusion. And the cinematic elements fit together as neatly as the plot lines. Carter Burwell's music, combined with the film's cloudy landscape shots (courtesy of cinematographer Tobias Schliessler, who worked with Condon on "Dreamgirls") add to a sense of nostalgia. McKellen is impeccable as the aging investigator, who has always prized logic over emotions. And the young Parker holds his own in every scene he shares with his elder.

David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter: But the film belongs unequivocally to McKellen, who, in his still-spry mid-70s, shifts with ease between playing a man some 15 years younger than himself and the same character at a far more advanced age. It's a wily performance full of understated wit and subdued irascibility, devoid of sentimentality and yet quietly moving as Holmes gazes ahead to the end of his eventful life with dignity and acceptance.

Pete Hammond, Deadline: This is a lovely, lyrical film with themes revolving around the inevitability of aging and the things of life that remain unfinished.

Colin Covert, Chicago Tribune: McKellen takes Sherlock in new directions. The Holmes he creates is brusquely direct but not the icy logical thinker we met often before. The detective's gentle bond with the inquisitive young Roger is a mentor and charming protege relationship. When it is threatened, you ache for both. He also delivers the role's humor with a sly wink to the audience, grumbling after he tumbles out of bed and cuts himself, "I look like I've been attacked by the hound of the Baskervilles." I can't remember another time when a faltering character has been played with such complete authority.

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