THE SHEEP DETECTIVES Review: Hugh Jackman Leads Winning Ensemble in Charming, Family-Oriented Murder-Mystery Comedy
For the big-brained, anthropomorphic sheep in director Kyle Balda (Despicable Me 3, Minions: The Rise of Gru, Minions) and screenwriter Craig Mazin's (The Huntsman: Winter's War, Identity Thief, The Hangover Parts II-III) charmingly realized adaptation of German author Leonie Swann’s 2005 bestselling novel, Three Bags Full, The Sheep Detectives, heaven and hell don't exist.
Purgatory doesn't either, at least not in the traditional sense. The sheep don't believe in death or dying per se, but as painless rebirth into the clouds overlooking the fields where they live, play, and dream. It’s a comforting fiction that the sheep willingly embrace. Anything else, including sheep raised not for their wool or companionship, but as meat for human consumption, isn’t one they can face, let alone accept. When anything harshes their mellow existence, including the death of one of their own, they hold a group vote to forget away the pain and anguish, preferring to live in blissful ignorance rather than the cold, hard light of the real world.
Undoubtedly heavy for a theatrical release aimed at the all-ages, family-oriented market, it’s less surprising considering Swann’s novel, Mazin’s recent filmography (The Last of Us, Chernobyl), or the murder-mystery premise involving the untimely demise by misadventure of George Hardy (Hugh Jackman), a benevolent shepherd who considers his flock family. For George, they’re not just family, they’re preferable to the duplicitous humans who populate the nearby country village of Denbrook, England.
When George’s flock finds his lifeless body outside his camper after a rainstorm, they’re not sure what to do or where to turn. At first, they’re not even sure he’s actually dead or simply unconscious. Luckily, George read to them every night from any one of his favorite murder-mystery novels, giving their de facto leader, Lily (delightfully voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus), and the flock's memory keeper, Mopple (Chris O’Dowd), several legs up in locating relevant clues, deciphering their meaning, and eventually uncovering George’s murderer(s).
The somewhat unlikely suspects in George’s death include Rebecca Hampstead (Molly Gordon), his long-lost, American-raised daughter, Caleb Merrow (Tosin Cole), George's neighbor and rival shepherd, Ham Gilyard (Conleth Hill), the local butcher with an overly keen eye on George's flock, Beth Pennock (Hong Chau), the town’s innkeeper and champion grudge-holder, Reverend Hillcoate (Kobna Holdbrook-Smith), the town’s lonely vicar, Lydia Harbottle (Emma Thompson), George’s well-fed barrister, Elliot Matthews (Nicholas Galitzine), a scoop-hungry, junior reporter writing up the local cultural festival, and Jo (Mandeep Dhillon), the town’s overly cheery postwoman.
With too many suspects and too few facts, Denbrook’s uniformed police officer, Tim Derry (Nicholas Braun), seems like the unlikeliest of heroes, let alone a crime-solving detective of the old-school kind. Since the inexperienced, clueless Derry can't succeed on his own, he’ll need help. It takes Lilly, Mopple, and a wisely cynical “winter lamb,” Sebastian (Bryan Cranston), whom George saved from mistreatment by carnival workers, to step up, step in, and give Denbrook’s only police officer the help he needs to uncover George’s murderer. Before he can even start, though, Derry needs to learn the three basics of detecting: means, motive, and, of course, opportunity.
Genre fans won't tire themselves out narrowing down the list of suspects until only the most likely remain, but the pleasures offered by The Sheep Detectives have less to do with the central mystery or its convolutions than the characters, major or minor, human or ovine, and their often hilarious interactions, asides, and general propensity for physical comedy. For example, Balda and Mazin wring a great deal of humor and pathos from a seemingly throwaway line involving Lily’s reputation as the “world’s smartest sheep.”
Before the end credits roll on The Sheep Detectives, Lily discovers both the truth and the untruth of that particular description, picks up a few easily digestible life lessons along the way, and comes out more self-confident in herself and her ability to lead the flock in George's absence. Through Lily and her four-legged perspective on both the ovine and human worlds, the audience learns to see differently as well.
Melding a murder-mystery-centered storyline and non-human characters could have descended into sheer farce or melancholic drama, but The Sheep Detectives does neither. Credit deservedly goes to Balda, making his live-action debut, and Mazin for striking the right balance between humor and solemnity, between the lightness inherent in a film involving talking animals and the seriousness of its themes (e.g., openness and honesty towards the subject of life and death, diversity and inclusion, if not equity, and the value of local communities).
The Sheep Detectives opens in movie theaters today (Friday, May 8), via Amazon MGM Studios. Visit the official site for locations and showtimes.
The Sheep Detectives
Director(s)
- Kyle Balda
Writer(s)
- Craig Mazin
- Leonie Swann
Cast
- Bryan Cranston
- Nicholas Galitzine
- Hugh Jackman
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