Review of Sherlock Jr. (1924) by Arth J — 07 Dec 2018

Keaton's mime art defines the genre at its best, innocently poignant and genuinely heartwarming.

Sherlock Jr.

Keaton's mime art defines the genre at its best, innocently poignant and genuinely heartwarming. This masterpiece has a certain knack for creating a long lasting impression on you with its humbleness and gullible nature which from the first frame you start to adore. This is not you usual good over evil triumph natured script. It is another Monday on this sketchy comic world. The first sequence itself is so tightly packed and flows fluently with mature narration that you are hooked within this first few minutes and you have achieved a thorough insight on these three dimensional characters. Naturally it's a sort of writing that depends completely upon the physical sequences.

And the first one consisting the protagonist gathering up money for his love interest shows you the humble and kind nature of it. And after you have hold on to his ideologies the bizarre shadow walking and leaping from a building to another one just feels natural due to his fluent body language. The chase scene with him riding a bike blindly, crossing forests and rivers is pure genius, something that cannot ever be recreated like such. But among all these gags the best is Keaton trying to play the pool, it is flat out hilarious from the way it is weaved out and is executed, each notion of that trick is magic.

To get a much free and wider range to flaunt his ludicrous theories, the concept he adapted is fascinating and creative. As a performer too, he is jaggedly on mark on foliating the emotions and the perfect example is the last act where you sink deeply in its mellow and sweet love track. Sherlock Jr. is one of those rare silent films that shocked the viewers then as much as it does now, it is an overwhelming experience to watch these characters come alive on screen.