Ian Mckellen stars as the detective Sherlock Holmes in the latest Sherlock movie, Mr. Holmes, the Guardian reports. Mckellen whom movie goers came to love and hate in his characters as Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and Magneto in the X-Men movie saga takes on another challenge as he plays the role of an old and retired Sherlock in his later years.
The film was adapted from a book entitled A Slight Trick of The Mind published in 2005 written by Mitch Cullin who sets the story in 1947 and features Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous character at 93 years old and starts to suffer from Alzheimer's. He is culturing bees for honey at home with the help of his son who seemed to have inherit his father's prying skills, in the hope of improving his condition. His pursuit for self-medication leads him to Japan where he meets with an admirer of his works, Umezaki, played by Hiroyuki Sanada known for his roles often as an antagonist, recently in Wolverine. The movie revolves around Sherlock's fight against the disease and resolving a case from his past that forced him into retirement.
The trailers seem to imply that the case has a lot to do with the detective's personal life and is now set out to unravel his own mystery. Laura Linney plays as his widowed housekeeper Mrs Munro, and Milo Parker as her young son Roger. The adaptation for the screen was written by Jeffrey Hatcher and directed by Bill Condon who was also the director of Academy-winner Gods and Monsters, Dreamgirls, Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, and Kinsey.
Reviews show positive statements on Mckellen's characterization of the role after the preview in Berlin Film Festival 2015 and the film itself was said to portray a refreshing Holmes who is warmer, more vulnerable, and more realistic. The film is set to be released this month in UK and next month in the US, as stated in BBC News.
