A popular trend with the character of Sherlock Holmes is to offset his genius with some sort of social or mental disorder, such as a drama-friendly form of autism or asperger's, or at least suggesting that his intelligence, attention to detail and inquisitive nature are socially isolating. We see bits of this in Robert Downey Jr's film portrayal and Hugh Laurie's Holmes analog, Dr Gregory House. What I have seen of promotional materials for Johnny Lee Miller's "Elementary" and my experience with Benedict Cumberbatch's acting style suggest their characters might be similar. "Mr. Holmes" takes a different tack, by examining the emotional consequences of such isolation.

Set primarily in 1947, Sherlock Holmes is a frail old man, more two decades into retirement in a country house in Dover, with only his widowed housekeeper, Mrs Monroe, played by Laura Linney, and her young son, Roger, and his beehives. The companions of his detective days, Watson, Mrs Hudson & Mycroft, are all long dead, and his memory is failing as senility encroaches, and he tries to fight it off with exotic cures, and a writing exercise. While other works have used the concept Holmes contending with the celebrity earned by Watson's books about his cases (most hilariously in "Without a Clue" ), "Mr. Holmes" uses that idea in a kind of melancholy fashion, as the image of the literary detective is something Holmes played up to, even while it isolated him from others.

Holmes' famous routine of announcing details about an individual or their recent activities gleaned from his powers of observation set against his encyclopedic base of knowledge is called upon several times in the film, but usually with a negative effect on the other people with whom he is dealing. While this too seems to be something of a trope with modern portrayals of the character, as he rubs his superior intellect in the faces of others, or wreaks havoc with his adherence to logic and indifference to his audience's feelings or unwritten social rules, this film seems more interested in how it blows back on Holmes, and turns people against him, even when he is right, or doing what people ask of him. Towards the end, one character prods him into doing it to another, and you can see on McKellan's face how little he wants to do it, because he anticipates the result of his revelation, while the subject of his deduction dreads that same result, and both know it will hurt the one demanding it. But he's Sherlock Holmes, and that's what everyone knows Sherlock Holmes does.

In response to both his failing memory, and the discrepancies of his legend (he neither smokes a pipe, nor wears his famous hunting cap, to the chagrin of his fans), Holmes is attempting to write the true story of his last case. This investigation is gradually revealed in flashbacks to the early 1920s, when Holmes was at the peak of his fame, and still straight-backed despite his grey hair & aged face, and investigating a wife's peculiar behavior. The events of the case, and his "present day" interactions with Roger, as well as flashbacks to a recent trip he took to Japan seeking yet another mental cure, all show how his life and success have combined to alienate him from so many people, leaving him a lonely old man with nothing to console him at the end of his life but that famous mind, which is now also leaving him.

This isn't a typical Sherlock Homes story, it isn't the usual game of showing an elderly version of a famous hero either coming back for one last case or else being followed even into retirement by his profession or vocation. The only real case being solved is the ending of the flashback story, whose outcome Holmes no longer recollects, only knows that it drove him into retirement. Rather, it uses a well-known character to explore the ideas of loneliness, the effect of ambition and ability on human connections, the importance of loved ones, and the meaning of a legacy. Kind of sentimental and touchy-feely, but it earns its relatively upbeat ending, and shows how even a seeker of truth can learn to appreciate fiction.

It's a people story, not an adventure or mystery, so as long as you manage your expectations, you should not be disappointed. I was helped when the trailers before this film were for a series of movies I had never even heard of, and will probably not watch willingly. I realized that given the absence of comic book characters or space ships or handguns, this was not going to be the sort of Sherlock Holmes movie I was used to, so I wasn't upset with what I got.

Also, it's directed by the guy who did the last couple of Twilight movies, for what that's worth. Does this mean they got good after three tries or so? Like Fast & Furious, or Spiderman?