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Parents' Guide to

Mr. Holmes

By Jeffrey Anderson, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 11+

Smart, literate, low-key drama about memory and stories.

Movie PG 2015 104 minutes
Mr. Holmes Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

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age 12+

Based on 2 parent reviews

Carefulaboutmovies
Carefulaboutmovies Adult
May 15, 2017
age 14+

Good movie but NOT for kids- Common Sense Media got this one wrong!

Common Sense got this review totally wrong. Suicide is a major theme in this movie. The "woman who gets hit by a train" actually stands in front of it to kill herself. The poison was purchased by her to either kill her husband or herself. We find out eventually that it was to kill herself. She forges a check to get money to buy her own headstone from a stonemason prior to killing herself. This was a deeply intense and tragic movie with a heavy sadness about it. It was a great movie and very beautiful, but for adults and older teens. I ended up having to explain suicide to my 10 year old because of this and she was very disturbed by the suicide scene. I can't believe common sense media didn't point this major plot line out. I feel as though their reviews are completely unreliable. Also surprised this movie isnt rated PG 13 due to the level of tragedy and violence between the talk/suspicion of murder plotting, the suicide and the Hiroshima scenes.

This title has:

Too much violence
mattie25
mattie25 Adult
April 2, 2016
age 10+
See all 2 parent reviews

What's the Story?

At age 93, the real-life Sherlock Holmes (Ian McKellen) is retired, living by the seaside and tending bees in MR. HOLMES. A grumpy housekeeper, Mrs. Munro (Laura Linney), helps care for him, and he travels to Japan to obtain a medicine called "prickly ash" to jog his memory. Something about his final case leaves him with an uneasy feeling; the fictional version written by the late Mr. Watson has a happy ending that doesn't add up. Mrs. Munro's young son, Roger (Milo Parker), becomes interested in the story, and Holmes finds bits of it returning as he teaches the boy about bees. The case involved a sad woman whose husband wanted her followed, and, bit by bit, Holmes begins to understand what really happened to her.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (2 ):
Kids say (6 ):

After two Twilight movies, director Bill Condon returns to the territory of his best movie, Gods and Monsters, with this thoughtful, low-key drama about the mysteries of memory and storytelling. Mr. Holmes may disappoint some viewers by not actually being a Sherlock Holmes mystery (nor is it an explosive adventure like Guy Ritche's Sherlock Holmes), but it's a great movie, a brilliant rumination on the delicate nature of human memory and the way we need to tell stories, not just for entertainment, but to live.

Screenwriter Jeffrey Hatcher (working from Mitch Cullin's novel) constructs an elaborate series of meditative flashbacks, dreams, and memories. It's deep and complex, and Condon makes it all seem quietly simple. Nothing seems concrete or certain, yet everything is connected, from the use of glass and bees, books, and movies, to young Roger's inability to remember stories from his early years. The fine performances by Condon regulars McKellen and Linney top it off. (Fun fact: The grown-up star of 1985's Young Sherlock Holmes, Nicholas Rowe, appears as a screen version of Holmes in a movie house.)

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about Mr. Holmes' upsetting/violent images. Very little violence is shown, and yet there are several disturbing events. How does the impact of what you see compare to that of what you don't see? Have movies become more violent over the years?

  • How does this movie compare to other Sherlock Holmes films? Is it more or less exciting? More or less thoughtful? More or less mysterious? Which is your favorite take on Sherlock, and why? How can bringing a preconceived notion of what a Sherlock Holmes story should be change your perception of what this movie actually is?

  • How does Mr. Holmes promote communication? Why is this an important character strength?

  • Have you ever been in a situation in which you used logic rather than emotion or imagination? What about the opposite? How did it work out?

  • How much smoking is shown or discussed in the movie? How was the attitude toward smoking different in those times?

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