In 1947, a 93-year-old Sherlock Holmes lives in retirement on a farm in rural Sussex, looked after by Mrs Munro and her young son Roger. Holmes is struggling to recall his last case, the one Watson later turned into a success story and which Holmes believes he got wrong. As he teaches Roger to tend the bees, the old detective is drawn to the boy's curiosity, and fragments of the past surface through flashbacks. A recent trip abroad also brings up a personal matter he had not expected. Life at the farmhouse grows tense as Mrs Munro feels the weight of her duties and Roger starts to want something different.

How it was made

The project was announced in September 2013, adapted from Mitch Cullin's novel A Slight Trick of the Mind, with Ian McKellen in the lead and Bill Condon directing from a screenplay by Jeffrey Hatcher. BBC Films and See-Saw Films were among the production companies, and FilmNation Entertainment handled international sales. Laura Linney joined as Mrs Munro in May 2014, and in July Hiroyuki Sanada, Patrick Kennedy, Roger Allam, Phil Davis, Frances de la Tour and Milo Parker were added. Principal photography began on 5 July 2014 in London and the south coast of England, with the historic Chatham Dockyard standing in for Japanese streets. The score is by Carter Burwell and the cinematography by Tobias A. Schliessler.

Reception and legacy

The film was screened out of competition at the 2015 Berlin International Film Festival, opening in British cinemas in June 2015 and in the United States in July. Its main draw was McKellen's portrayal of an ageing, melancholy Holmes, far from the brisk action hero of earlier screen versions. A cameo by Nicholas Rowe, who had played Holmes in Young Sherlock Holmes, nods to the Basil Rathbone films. The picture sits among the late-career revisions of the character and engages with Watson's role as the chronicler of Holmes's cases.