Gag Me With a Silk Stocking...

First off...

HA. I did the right assignment.

Anyway.


Growing up with a father who is a die-hard fan of anything having to do with the Victorian Era (including every Sherlock Holmes story, original and fan-based), it's not horribly surprising that I ended up loving the Sherlock Holmes stories, too. Unfortunately, liking them so much makes watching bad rip-offs of Sherlock Holmes stories especially painful.

I think the worst Sherlock Holmes-based movie I've ever watched was one in what I understand is a new series of Holmes shows produced by BBC.

'The Case of the Silk Stocking' is a good movie in itself, but as a movie based on the characters of 'Sherlock Holmes', it's horrible. Not only is it set in the wrong time period (which I suppose is slightly excusable - one of my favorite Holmes-based movies is also set in the wrong period), but it also shows Holmes doing every drug known to man every five minutes, he is increasingly egotistical and rude to every other character as the movie progresses, and he insults Dr. Watson, his 'best' and most trusted friend in the original stories, whenever the two are within shouting distance.

(Ironically, Watson is played by actor Ian Hart, who also played the part of 'Sherlock Holmes' creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle alongside Johnny Depp's portrayal of Sir James Matthew Barrie, creator of 'Peter Pan' in 'Finding Neverland'.)

In many cases, the breaking of a movie can be put down to lack-luster acting skills, but in this case, I think the character flaws are due more to fault on the part of the writers and possibly even the director, though I don't think directors necessrily have that much of an influence on how the characters are written. Watching Rupert Everett in both this movie as Sherlock Holmes and as the evil 'Doctor Claw' in 'Inspector Gadget', I'm even less willing to put blame on his acting skills for the awkward portayal of Holmes, as he appears to be very talented.

Hopefully he'll choose to take his acting skills elsewhere if offered a part as this awful version of Sherlock Holmes again.