Ian McKellen will portray an Elderly Sherlock in the upcoming ‘Mr Holmes

Movies have cashed in, too, since all the titles and characters are in the public domain. Mr. Holmes doesn’t try to outdo the likes of Sherlock or Elementary in its depiction of the world’s greatest detective, instead opting to present a quieter, frailer version of the character in his twilight years.

Storyline: Sherlock Holmes – now aged and retired – looks back on his life and grapples with an unsolved case involving a attractive woman.

It’s thanks largely to that cast that, while the sometimes laggardly “Mr. Holmes” lacks the narrative momentum and razor-sharp focus upon which Holmes fans have become accustomed – losing its train of thought just as often as McKellen’s glassy-eyed Holmes does from time to time – it’s a well-assembled case study nonetheless. Holmes aren’t so much solved as their solutions are simply remembered.

The film splits into thirds to cover all of this ground. A man of genius is reduced to chasing the last embers of that same intelligence, and wrestling against the degeneration of his faculties as much as the facts of his last case. His principal human contact is with his housekeeper, a recent war widow named Mrs. Munro (Laura Linney), and her young son, Roger (Milo Parker), who befriends the old man and joins in the beekeeping hobby.

The case itself, unfortunately, is fairly immaterial.

But, as detailed in Jeffrey Hatcher’s deft script taken from Mitch Cullin’s novel “A Slight Trick of the Mind“, several factors have made Holmes not quite himself.

Still, redefining Sherlock Holmes in Mr. Holmes gave the classically trained thespian pause until he was assured old friend Bill Condon would be directing. The pair worked together once before on 1998’s Gods and Monsters, which won Condon an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay and garnered critical acclaim (as most of his film and stage work has) for McKellen, including a Best Actor nomination. He is so highly and rightly revered for his gravity, good humor and impeccable instincts, and he seldom lets down his reputation in any tangible way.

It’s 1947, and the great detective, in his 90s, has just returned from a trip to Japan in search of a medicinal plant he hopes will help slow the degradation of his once-impeccable memory. He does not embody the easy and prickly confidence of the detective that was embodied by Basil Rathbone in the 1940s.

“I have been alone, all my life”, says 93-year-old Sherlock Holmes (Ian McKellen), and you hear every one of his years in that voice. The film’s drift matches Holmes’ memory struggles but, ultimately, we are rewarded with loose ends tied neatly with affection and grace.

Above all else, a movie built around a star promises presence, and in Bill Condon’s Mr.

The fun-loving jolt of McKellen’s new foray into TV comedy has been seen off-set as well, such as when, around February of this year, the Warwick Rowers posted a photo to Instagram of them hoisting the actor in their arms. And, if they think of Holmes, they will think of Holmes thinking of her.

Meanwhile, Holmes also is still haunted by the details of his final case, shown in flashbacks from decades earlier, that of a husband (Patrick Kennedy) afraid that his wife (Hattie Morahan) has been brainwashed by her music teacher after trying to find an outlet for her sadness following the loss of two children during childbirth.