WHAT’S IT ABOUT
George Hardy is a shepherd who loves to read murder mysteries to his sheep, never suspecting that they can understand him. When George is found dead under mysterious circumstances, the sheep decide to solve the crime themselves, even if it means leaving their meadow for the first time and facing the fact that the human world isn’t as simple as it appears in books.
MOVIESinMO REVIEW
I saw “The Sheep Detectives,” intending to roll my eyes and fall asleep right away. A movie with the premise of talking sheep solving a murder seemed like the type of idea usually proposed by the relative of a studio executive. But somehow, as the first joke came along followed by the first moment of silence relating to loss, I found myself melting. The movie is stupid, yes, but what is more surprising is that it is full of heart, which makes this combination quite difficult to achieve. The tale is adapted from a German book titled “Three Bags Full,” and it happens in the small town named Denbrook in England. In this film, Hugh Jackman has played a shepherd named George Hardy who tends sheep by day and reads them mystery novels during the night. He takes care of every sheep as if they’re his own family; he gives them names and looks after them with a dedication that is almost devotional. He is wrong in believing that the sheep do not understand him when he talks to them. George is found dead outside of his trailer, and the local cop, played by Nicholas Braun, thinks it was an accident and goes on with his life. However, the flock knows something else. Under the leadership of a wise sheep named Lily, voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, the sheep begin to investigate the nature of George’s death and find out the truth while the humans in the movie keep following them around. That cast includes George’s estranged daughter Rebecca, played by Molly Gordon, who returns home just as the murder investigation begins, and a young reporter named Elliot, played by Nicholas Galitzine, who sees the case as his big break. Emma Thompson shows up as a sharp-tongued lawyer handling George’s estate, and she steals nearly every scene she is in. Hong Chau plays an innkeeper with a soft spot for George and a secret of her own. The voice cast rounds out with Chris O’Dowd as Mopple, a sheep who cannot forget anything unpleasant, Patrick Stewart as the wise elder Sir Richfield, Regina Hall as a sheep with a bit too much pride, and Bryan Cranston as Sebastian, a loner who has cut himself off from the rest of the flock for reasons that slowly come into focus. What amazed me most was the way the film captures grief so honestly. In this tale, sheep have the special ability to overcome anything that makes them sad. Whenever they face something bad they simply get over it and they don’t see death as anything else but turning into a cloud. However, it takes only one sheep named Sebastian to show that it is possible not to shy away from grief and let it get through rather than let it go. The film suggests that learning to cope with grief, rather than absconding from it, is crucial to a deeper understanding of love. Now, as someone who watches these stories with an eye on who gets to matter on screen, I have to point out where the film falls short. There are two Black actors in the human cast: Tosin Cole as a rival shepherd named Caleb and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith as the town’s reverend. Both men are written into the story mainly to keep the audience guessing about who committed the murder. Their screen time is thin, and neither character gets much of an inner life beyond serving as a possible suspect. Regina Hall lends her voice to one of the sheep, which is a nice touch, but a voice role in a herd of a dozen animals is not the same as giving a Black actor real weight in the plot. For a film this warmhearted, it is disappointing that the Black characters exist mostly to be looked at with suspicion rather than to be understood. Technically, the film holds up well. The visual effects on the sheep are convincing enough that you forget you are watching animation layered over live action. Jackman only appears for a short stretch of the runtime, but his presence lingers over the rest of the story the way a good opening chapter lingers over a whole book. Nicholas Braun carries the middle and back half of the film with a bumbling charm that never tips into annoying, and his scenes with Emma Thompson are some of the funniest in the movie. Molly Gordon does fine work, though her role feels close to characters she has played before, which makes her arc a little easy to predict. The film does not try to reinvent the whodunit. The mystery itself is fairly simple to follow, and sharp viewers will likely guess the ending before the sheep do. That is fine, because the mystery was never really the point. The point is watching a flock of animals learn how to sit with sadness instead of running from it, and watching a group of human suspects reveal who they really are once the truth comes out. Kids will laugh at the sheep antics. Adults will feel something they were not quite ready for. “The Sheep Detectives” will not change how people think about the genre, and it does not fully deliver on the promise of its supporting Black characters. But it earns its emotional moments honestly, and it never talks down to its audience, young or old. That combination of humor and sincerity is rare enough that I am comfortable calling this one of the more pleasant surprises of the year.
OUR RATING – A SHEEPISH 7