Suspense and sleuthing are a backstory to this elegant tale of regret, rectification and humility.

| Aug 15, 2019

What a pleasure it is to be in the presence of Ian McKellen, who dominates the screen in Mr. Holmes.

| Jul 24, 2015

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

| Jul 22, 2015

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.

| Original Score: B+ | Jul 21, 2015

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.

| Jul 19, 2015

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.

| Jul 17, 2015

[An] intriguing if only semi-satisfying Sherlockian enterprise.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 17, 2015

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.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 17, 2015

McKellen is masterful, in a multilayered tale that navigates the no man's land between memory and fiction.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 17, 2015

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.

| Original Score: C | Jul 17, 2015

Mr. Holmes is about how the past defines us. It is also very much about regret and trying to put things right.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 17, 2015

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.

| Jul 17, 2015

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.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 16, 2015

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.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 16, 2015

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.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 16, 2015

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.

| Jul 16, 2015

Along with all the sighs and grunts, McKellen gives Sherlock a rich inner life troubled by moral and existential doubts.

| Jul 16, 2015

A careful, deliberate exploration of a powerful personality that has to rush a bit at the end, but doesn't quite trip over itself in the process.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 16, 2015

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.

| Jul 16, 2015

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.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 16, 2015