Mr. Holmes 2015

Miriam Di Nunzio, Chicago Sun-Times: McKellen is brilliant throughout, his piercing blue eyes revealing the gallantry of youth and the sadness of a life's worth of memories slipping further away. Read more

Wesley Morris, Grantland: As someone who neither hungers for yet another incarnation of this character nor understands why anyone would, I watched in subdued bafflement. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Amply rewards McKellen and Holmes fans willing to go with its leisurely pace. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: I found the whole thing pokey and plodding, but there's no denying the fact that even when sitting through Mr. Holmes seems numbing, Mr. McKellen is a force so powerful he's his own reward. Read more

Scott Foundas, Variety: While the good detective himself hobbles about with a cane, "Mr. Holmes" the movie glides smoothly back and forth across decades and continents as it follows these disparate plot strands through to their eminently logical conclusions. Read more

Jesse Hassenger, AV Club: Mr. Holmes has moments of palpable regret and loss, but visually speaking, it looks like a blandly touching movie about a lonely old man who befriends a scrappy kid and learns about the magic of storytelling. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Sherlock Holmes is a kind of detective Superman, and what makes "Mr. Holmes" so intriguing - in addition to a terrific performance by Ian McKellen as the title character - is seeing him facing his own personal Kryptonite. Read more

Peter Keough, Boston Globe: Director Bill Condon and screenwriter Jeffrey Hatcher are clueless, and come up with an incoherent, implausible, contrived mishmash. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: The movie resonates most as a story of approaching death -- the only mystery our hero can't solve. Read more

Patrick Dunn, Detroit News: It's a fairly compelling tale, but the intrigue we expect of a Holmes story is conspicuously lacking, even with three different mysteries unfurling onscreen. Read more

Devan Coggan, Entertainment Weekly: The mystery subplot lacks the ingenuity of the greatest Holmes stories, but McKellen excels, switching effortlessly between the reclusive beekeeper with a faltering memory and the elegant younger detective at the height of his powers. Read more

David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter: The film represents an agreeably old-fashioned alternative to all the modernized reinventions of Arthur Conan Doyle's venerable detective in recent years. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: An elegant puzzler that presents the sage of Baker Street dealing with the one thing he's never had to contend with before: his own emotions. Read more

Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News: McKellen puts an indelible stamp on Holmes. He gives us a more seasoned, crankier Holmes, a former detective who's trying to stop a decaying mind from turning his own life into an unsolved mystery. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Sherlock Holmes may have never really walked the earth, but Mr. Holmes humanizes him to such a degree, you walk out of the theater practically convinced you've just watched a biopic. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: McKellen is masterful, in a multilayered tale that navigates the no man's land between memory and fiction. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: The atmosphere that enfolds "Mr. Holmes" could not be more sedate. It belongs to what a friend of mine calls the toot-toot genre, which includes any period film or TV drama that starts with a shot of a steam train. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: The best of it, as in Condon's other movies, are the details of emotions, fleeting but just as quickly caught - true concern camouflaged by flashes of impatience, unutterable despair masquerading as simple grief. Read more

Ella Taylor, NPR: Along with all the sighs and grunts, McKellen gives Sherlock a rich inner life troubled by moral and existential doubts. Read more

Bob Mondello, NPR: Even those who've read the book can be startled by what happens in Mr. Holmes, while they're being moved by McKellen in a role he's come to late, but with his customary elegance. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Stories about mythic figures at the end of their days are compelling - but they still need some zing. That's what "Mr. Holmes" is missing. Read more

A.O. Scott, 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. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Mr. Holmes is about how the past defines us. It is also very much about regret and trying to put things right. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Ian McKellen, magnificent as Sherlock, brings us a riveting character study of a lion not going gentle into winter. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: It's a gentle examining of life near its end. And with McKellen at its center, his face as gloriously long and complex as a Sir Arthur Conan Doyle plot, it's also a master class in acting. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: "Mr. Holmes" plays out at one steady pace, without any alteration in velocity, but it always gives us something, some interplay of characters worth noting, some insight into the great detective's personality. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: McKellen, who gets under the skin of every character he plays, takes Sherlock in new directions. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: Mr. Holmes adds another version of the beloved character to the Sherlock canon; less a mystery solved than a character explored, fascinating in many small ways thanks to superb work from McKellen. Read more

James Rocchi, TheWrap: After his recent string of what feels like too many comic-book blockbusters, social-media memes and chat-show appearances, it's nice to see McKellen in a role that actually demands - and rewards - his acting abilities. Read more

Cath Clarke, Time Out: Sir Ian is a pleasure to watch, though the drama isn't as compelling as it might have been. Read more

Bruce Kirkland, Toronto Sun: There is nothing elementary about Mr. Holmes, the fascinating film that tells the "true story" of what happens when the world's most famous detective goes into retirement and seclusion. Read more

Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice: Condon, like this Holmes, can't quite keep everything in his story straight and clear, but he and his film come close just often enough. Read more

Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture: It's a gripping little tale, to be sure, but it's more than that. Somewhere in its tangle of timelines, false starts, and red herrings is a great truth about the unsolvable mystery of the human soul. Read more

Stephanie Merry, Washington Post: 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. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: The movie, directed by Bill Condon, provides a showcase for Mr. McKellen, who in real life is 76; watching every moment of his performance is pure pleasure. Read more