SHERLOCK: THE ABOMINABLE BRIDE

UK, 2016, 89 minutes, Colour.
Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, Rupert Graves, Una Stubbs, Mark Gattis, Catherine Mc Cormack, Tiom Mc Inerney.
Directed by Douglas Mc Kinnon.

After three seasons of Sherlock, television movies where the celebrated detective operates in the contemporary world, this is a special one-off film, released as a special event in cinemas and then on television.

It is a rather complicated affair. it opens with a collage highlighting the principal events and characters in the previous films. There is then a time shift and a return to 1895, Dr John Watson coming back from campaign in Afghanistan, settling into London, meeting a friend and being offered the sharing of digs in 221a Baker Street. They go to meet Sherlock Holmes who is whipping a corpse, experimenting on how long it takes for the blood to stop flowing in a dead body!

There is then a transition to a new case after Dr Watson has published quite a number of stories and they are very popular – although Mrs Hudson, Una Stubbs again, complains that she is not included, as does Dr Watson’s servant.

Holmes, played with style by Benedict Cumberbatch, is being particularly introspective. There is a humorous moment when Mary, Watson’s wife, disguises herself in black as a client, wanting some opportunity to see her husband. Inspector Lestrade, Rupert Graves again, comes in concerned about two killings – by a bride who then shoots herself but appears later shooting her husband.

There are various explorations to puzzle out what happened, visits to the morgue, the head mortician disguised as a man, but not deceiving Watson, interviews with various witnesses – and a particular case where a callous landowner has seen the bride, is terrified, and his wife comes as a client for Holmes to investigate. He and Watson do see the bride who vanishes.

There is a Monty Pythonesque scene where Holmes and Watson go to visit Mycroft, Mark Gattis, one of the originators of the series, disguised in a fat suit and over, over-eating. And we see Mary Watson, employed by Mycroft and doing her own investigations.

Holmes also has an encounter with Moriarty, again Andrew Scott, who seems to be dead, but reappears, continually taunting Holmes, until they fight once again at the Reichenbach Falls, Dr Watson intervening and shooting Moriarty.

There is a return to the 21st century and it seems that Holmes has been withdrawing into himself, fantasising about Moriarty, rejoining Mycroft, John and Mary, taking drugs, cautioned by Watson, but returning the past to try to solve the mystery – which includes digging up the corpse of the abominable bride.

Mycroft had warned that the enemy had to be lost to – and, when the solution comes, it is a plot by women suffragettes, including the widow of the frightened aristocrat, who has theatrically engineered the killings – with the bride herself, suffering from consumption, doing the killing but then sacrificing herself as a witness to the cause. In his introspection, Holmes also imagines that Moriarty is behind the plot.

Return to the present, case solved, but still the prospect of Moriarty in future films.

1. The popularity of the television series? Of the contemporary setting? On the reliance on Conan Doyle stories? 21st-century adaptations? Benedict Cumberbatch and his stylish Sherlock? Martin Freeman and his style Has John Watson?

2. This film as a one-off event for cinema and television? A special story?

3. The introduction, the collage of events and characters from the previous series? And then the time shift to 1895?

4. The 1895 settings, the streets of London, Baker Street, the rooms, costumes and decor? The encounter with Mycroft at his club? The country mansions and the estates? Action in London, the streets, Limehouse?

5. The contrast with the 21st-century settings, with which the audience was familiar, the planes, Baker Street, costumes and decor in contrast? The musical score?

6. The opening with Watson coming from Afghanistan, his war experience, meeting his friend on the street, the accommodation, Holmes and his experiment with whipping the corpse to test blood-flow? Watson settling in, writing the stories, people commenting on their popularity? Mrs Hudson wanting to know why she was not in the stories? Watson and his wife disguised in black in order to see him? At home, the maid and her wondering why she wasn’t in the stories?

7. Holmes, brooding, the drugs? Playing the violin? Feeling that he should go inside himself? Discovering Moriarty, the confrontations with Moriarty, the Reichenbach Falls, Moriarty with the wound of the black blood at the back of his head? The confrontation, Watson shooting him, the fall? As a creation from Holmes’ psyche?

8. The case of the bride, shooting people, killing herself? The reappearance, the death of her husband in Limehouse?

9. Inspector Lestrade, concern, fear, the drink, involving Holmes in the investigation? Going to the morgue, verifying the body?

10. Holmes, his study, solving the case, the explanation of what had happened? The fake suicide, the blood? The corpse of similar appearance, substitution?

11. The country estate, the wife coming for help, the husband, provisions, the seeds in the mail, seeing the bride? Holmes and Watson going to the estate, keeping guard, seeing the bride, the shattered glass?

12. The visit Mycroft, Mark Gattis the fat-suit? Overeating in Pythonesque style? The challenge to his brother, an enemy that had to be submitted to? His engaging Mary Watson to help?

13. The solution, the women and the gathering, and the veils of suffragettes? The bride and her illness, dying as a witness to the cause? The doctor at the morgue – and her disguise?

14. The hypothesis of Holmes going inside his own psyche, the different time movements, solving cases and his obsessions, the role of Moriarty?

15. Moriarty and the anticipation of further cases?