I went into this film totally expecting a cliché ending with Holmes dying, so I was surprised that Holmes was more energetic than ever by the end. Anyway, the main thread of the plot is how even the mighty Sherlock Holmes can't fight against the tide of mortality. And yet he battles hard to finish a memoir of his final case to reveal the truth before it is lost to time. I had a grandfather who also suffered from dementia, so this movie hit hard at home for me and I felt super bad every time Holmes would struggle to remember something - especially Roger's name. The final case was an interesting one, as Holmes solves it perfectly as he's still in his prime...but the reason it ends in tragedy is because Holmes' suppression of empathy in favour of logic bit him in the ass as he failed to console a suicidal woman. I liked that as it exposed a flaw within his character without necessarily undermining his brilliance. I must say, it was a curious choice to completely obscure Watson's face throughout the flashbacks but I didn't dislike it. Something I did like was that when Holmes is watching a movie about himself (how meta) the man playing Movie!Holmes is Nicholas Rowe who famously played Holmes in "Young Sherlock Holmes" which I also watched recently. Similarly, the detective who cameos at the end is played by Phil Davis who played the serial killer in the first episode of BBC's Sherlock. Anyways, the climax of the film is interesting as it's the main point where the film diverges from the novel it was based on, ("A Slight Trick of the Mind"). In the novel, Roger dies from his wasp injuries and the novel ends with Holmes accepting his mortality is coming very soon. That ending was far too nihilistic even for me and evidently the screenwriter as the film has Roger managing to survive his injuries and is slowly recovering with Holmes enjoying his final days with his newly adopted "family" that he plans to leave the house to after he's gone.
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