I’ve got five weeks away from work starting this weekend, and that means…well, it means my girlfriend and I finally found time to go see The Sheep Detectives. I had been curious about this one for a while, but when she expressed interest in seeing it, I put it off until she was free to go see it with me. That would have been this weekend, and yeah, we went out and saw it, weeks after it came out. Was it worth it? Well, I find any time with her is worth it, but what about the movie itself?
Will I believe a sheep can talk? And solve murder cases?
Kind-hearted shepherd George Handy (Hugh Jackman) is a kind man, one who cares for his sheep and only takes the wool. He’s given each of the sheep a name, and in the evenings, he reads to them from a murder mystery. As it is, the sheep love the mysteries, and that makes sense because they talk to each other about who they think the killer is, one of them always suspecting the maid. Yes, the sheep can talk, but only to each other: humans just hear them bleating. Each sheep, many voiced by recognizable actors, has their own quirks, but with the exception of Mopple (voice of Chris O’Dowd), they can forget anything unpleasant with only a few seconds concentration. They all believe sheep eventually turn into clouds rather than die. They all treat a winter-born lamb as an outcast. And they revere George. So, naturally, they’re all rather upset when George turns up dead one day, particularly since it seems to be an act of murder.
Now, normally, the sheep could probably count on the local constable (Nichols Braun), but he’s not very bright. As such, the smartest of the sheep, Lily (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) will work with Mopple and the loner ram Sebastian (Bryan Cranston) to try and solve the murder themselves. Is the killer the neighboring shepherd George didn’t like? The town butcher, who would love to get some of those sheep for himself? The minister? The long-lost daughter who just inherited a vast fortune? Someone else? And can any animal that can will itself to forget unpleasant ideas actually solve a mystery? That may be the biggest mystery of them all.
I went in hoping for a pleasant, family-friend murder mystery (yes, such things can be possible), and that is essentially what I got. It had a good mystery at its center. The main sheep characters are delightful and demonstrate character growth. There are some pleasant surprises and some good laughs. Jackman seems like the epitome of human kindness–a pleasant surprise for my girlfriend who knows him best as Wolverine–and the human cast don’t completely disappear behind their sheep co-stars. Really, I have to stretch myself to find a complaint.
In fact, I didn’t care for Braun’s English accent. It didn’t sound good. There, that is literally my only real complaint. The sheep are delightful. The movie is fun. It’s not an all-time classic, but it’s just an excellent little comedy.
Grade: A-
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