I was worried too, but I heard that the movie was surprisingly faithful to the source material, so I decided to give it a chance. Having seen it, I'd say that it's fairly faithful in the case of Watson, but not with Holmes. And many minor characters just didn't feel like themselves either.
Watson specifically notes in The Musgrave Ritual that Holmes "affected a certain quiet primness of dress". The movie Holmes doesn't even bother to shave when he goes out. :( And the fact that I'm cursed with book purism doesn't help. I always have a hard time accepting actors who don't match the description of the source material, and Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes is just physically miscast; he is not particularly tall (which Holmes is) and I certainly would not call him skinny (which Holmes is). I could have let those fly had they tried to make him look the part otherwise, but I guess they figured they might as well go wild.
As I've mentioned, I've been re-reading all the Holmes stories and absolutely swooning over the Granada TV series (check it out here if you haven't seen it, it's awesome (http://www.youtube.com/user/masterblackmailer4u)) so maybe I was not very receptive for a new kind of Holmes in the first place, but I doubt I could've accepted the movie's version even if I hadn't been refreshing my memory.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2010-04-27 12:07 pm (UTC)Watson specifically notes in The Musgrave Ritual that Holmes "affected a certain quiet primness of dress". The movie Holmes doesn't even bother to shave when he goes out. :( And the fact that I'm cursed with book purism doesn't help. I always have a hard time accepting actors who don't match the description of the source material, and Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes is just physically miscast; he is not particularly tall (which Holmes is) and I certainly would not call him skinny (which Holmes is). I could have let those fly had they tried to make him look the part otherwise, but I guess they figured they might as well go wild.
As I've mentioned, I've been re-reading all the Holmes stories and absolutely swooning over the Granada TV series (check it out here if you haven't seen it, it's awesome (http://www.youtube.com/user/masterblackmailer4u)) so maybe I was not very receptive for a new kind of Holmes in the first place, but I doubt I could've accepted the movie's version even if I hadn't been refreshing my memory.