THE SHEEP DETECTIVES Review: Hugh Jackman Leads Winning Ensemble in Charming, Family-Oriented Murder-Mystery

For the big-brained talking sheep of director Kyle Balda (Despicable Me 3, Minions: The Rise of Gru, Minions) and writer Craig Mazin (The Last of Us, Chernobyl, The Hangover Parts II-III)'s adaptation of German author Leonie Swann’s 2005 novel Three Bags Full, The Sheep Detectives, heaven and hell don’t exist.

Neither does purgatory nor its equivalent. Instead, the sheep fervently believe not in death or dying per se, but in being reborn as clouds. It’s a comforting fiction they willingly embrace. Anything else, including the reality of sheep-as-food for human consumption, isn’t a reality they can face, let alone embrace.

Heavy thematically, no doubt, especially for a film marketed as an all-ages, family-oriented film, but it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone familiar with the source material, Mazin’s recent filmography (Chernobyl), or the murder-mystery premise involving the untimely death by misadventure of top-billed actor Hugh Jackman’s character, George Hardy, a benevolent shepherd who treats his flock like they’re 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 sheep discover his 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. Luckily for them, 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 her nominal best friend, Mopple (Chris O’Dowd), several legs up in locating relevant clues, deciphering their meaning, and eventually discovering George’s killer or killers.

The somewhat unlikely suspects in George’s death include Rebecca Hampstead (Molly Gordon), his long-lost, American-raised daughter, Caleb (Tosin Cole), another shepherd with a distinctly different set of priorities, Ham Gilyard (Conleth Hill), the local butcher with a 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 reporter writing up the local cultural festival, and Jo (Mandeep Dhillon), the town’s overly cheery postwoman.

With more suspects than provable facts, that leaves Denbrook’s inexperienced police officer, Tim Derry (Nicholas Braun), in a near-perpetual state of confusion and self-doubt. A stumbling, bumbling, long-limbed mess, Derry makes for the unlikeliest of heroes, let alone detectives, but with the unsuspecting help from George’s flock, specifically Lilly, Mopple, and a “winter lamb,” Sebastian (Bryan Cranston), that George saved from a traveling carnival, Derry has a chance, a slim chance, but still a chance, to uncover the identity of George’s murderer via a close examination of means, motive, and, of course, opportunity.

Murder-mystery fans will easily narrow down the list of suspects until only one or two remain, but the pleasures offered by The Sheep Detectives have less to do with the story and its convolutions than the characters, both sheep and non-human, and their often hilarious interactions, asides, and general propensity for physical comedy. Balda and Mazin make much out of Lily’s reputation as the “world’s smartest sheep.”

Over the course of the film’s well-paced running time, Lily discovers both the truth and the untruth in that statement. Through Lily and her unique perspective on the sheep and human worlds, so does the audience.

With its murder-mystery-centered storyline and its non-human characters, The Sheep Detectives could have descended into sheer farce or mournful drama, but it 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.