The Hound of the Baskervilles [2002] [DVD]

Oh dear...

It's easy to tell where this latest version of Conan Doyle's perennial classic goes wrong because so little goes right. There's little fault with the script, which does a decent job of retelling a by now overly familiar tale and even throws in an intriguingly gothic Christmas Eve party for good measure. Some of the supporting performances are fine - John Nettles and Richard E. Grant in particular. But the leads are so very wrong that they sap the life from the thing.

Ian Hart's Watson is surly and obnoxious, all too easily offended and trapped in a deeply distrustful relationship with Holmes. Since Watson has to carry much of the drama, this keeps us at arm's length from involvement, especially since Matt Day is such a dull Baskerville. However, where Hart is a good actor giving a misjudged performance, Richard Roxburgh gives every indication of being a bad actor giving a bad performance. He may not quite be the worst Holmes in the way that he was definitely the worst Dracula (in Van Helsing), but he's certainly the dullest and blandest despite his overstated distance and eccentricities, while the attempt to make him more of an action hero simply ends up making him a very ordinary figure instead. With all displays of Holmes' deductive reasoning dropped (even the famous scene with Dr Mortimer's walking stick is gone), his disguises omitted (he just appears on the moor as if he were still dressed for Baker Street) and his drug use wildly overdone (rather than resorting to narcotics when bored, he even jacks up in a public toilet while working on the case in this version), he's such a blunt bull in a China shop here that rather than pay the cabby for information, he beats him up instead as if he were a 19th century Popeye Doyle.

Although David Attwood's direction throws up the odd good bit of composition, the grotty lighting and perpetual green tint on the original TV broadcast version sap any signs of life before they can bloom. And the less said about the shoddily animated CGi hound the better - despite the impressively populated London street scenes, it's hard to believe that this is probably the biggest budgeted version since Rathbone and Bruce strode the Moor.

The BBC have previously had good luck with the tale - both their Peter Cushing and Tom Baker versions, studio-bound though they were, were more involving in their cosy Sunday teatime way. Sadly, this attempt to bring a more modern aesthetic, while marginally better than the dreadful Peter Cook and Dudley Moore spoof, is nonetheless a very poor show indeed.

I read the novel of HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES several years ago, after having seen at least three of the many filmed versions. Despite my being forewarned of the plot I still found it an atmospheric and enthralling read, a true testament to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's writing talents. It remains my favourite SHERLOCK HOLMES story (I've read every single one!) thanks to the clever blending of superstition and modern thinking (perhaps reflecting the times in which Conan Doyle wrote it) and I always welcome any new adaptation of this classic tale.

Sadly, the time when the BBC produced quality television as a matter of course has long passed; They now treat such prestige productions as this as an 'event' that arrives annually, perhaps in the hope that we appreciate it enough to forgive the rubbish they feed us the rest of the year. This latest version of THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES is indeed such an event: A quality production dripping with atmosphere and successfully infusing the tale with new slants and suprises. There can be very few members of the public that have not, by now, seen at least one adaptation of this famous yarn so I have much admiration for a writer who successfully takes such familiar material and makes it worth me watching all over again. Credit to all involved, as that is exactly what's been done.

The cast is uniformly excellent: Richard Roxburgh does on occasion seem to be supressing his Australian accent a little too much, but other than that makes a fine HOLMES. Both his performance and comments made by the actor on the DVD clearly demostrate that he understands the character, and the chance to see a younger, more energetic HOLMES is very refreshing. The same applies to Ian Hart as WATSON; He's a revelation in the role and carries his scenes with confidence. Nigel Bruce's bumbler to Rathbone's HOLMES is now a thing of the past, and Hart's assured performance stands along side my personal favourite WATSON, David Burke in the first Jeremy Brett series. Support from familiar names like John Nettles, Richard E. Grant and even Liza Tarbuck is very well delivered.

The story is so familiar I won't bother recounting it - It's the detail that make this film so enjoyable. The "spectral hound" itself proves that, despite horrendous overuse in rubbish like THE MUMMY, computer generated images can be effective and convincing. The direction is confident, the music suitably menacing and both the sound and art design are engaging & convincing.
There have been changes to the plot but as I mentioned earlier, such things are essential to keep such a familiar story fresh. My favourite adaptation remains the Hammer Studios version with Peter Cushing and Andre Morell, yet that takes enormous liberties with the storyline. One critcism I do share with a fellow reviewer is the scene of HOLMES injecting himself with drugs. He only needed the stimulus when not on a case, so it's inclusion here is wrong (as it was in the recent BBC SHERLOCK HOLMES film "The Case of the Silk Stocking" with Rupert Everett). The writer explains that HOLMES also took morphine to 'calm his thought processes' but I don't buy that - Still, it can't undermine what was a truly wonderful production mounted all too infrequently by the BBC.

This adaptation from Conan Doyle's 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' is simply fantastic! All the members of the castare brilliant, particually Richard Roxburgh who manages to display a convincing English accent and give more depth to the character of Sherlock Holmes than previous actors have. The fact that he is not in the deer stalkers hat and smoking a pipe(this outfit was never mentioned in the original text), but rather in a smart black suit with bowler hat and smoking cigerettes, makes the character far more accessible to the modern day audience than previous incarnations and so is far more appealing. The attention to the fact that in the books Holmes is a drug addict is also given reference but it seems a little disjointed and only readers of the Holmes books may realise the significance. Ian Hart is a wonderful Watson, with the relationship between he and Holmes given an appropriate level of both antagonism and loyalty, with the issue of trust being strongly addressed. Ricard E Grant's performance as Stapleton the is perfectly chilling as the story unfolds. Support performances by Matt Day, Liza Tarbuck and John Nettles are all of a high standard to making this one of the best pieces of drama that the BBC has produced in a long time. Absolutely Fantastic!