Rachel McAdams Joins 'Sherlock Holmes'

Thursday

25Sep2008

Rachel McAdams Joins 'Sherlock Holmes'

Thursday, September 25, 2008 at 12:33AM

I've been critical of plenty of developments concerning Sherlock Holmes, the new Guy Ritchie revamp that will star Robert Downey Jr. as the master detective and, apparently, Jude Law as his right-hand man, Dr. Watson. Well, those are pretty much my concerns. Downey can always win me over, but I think there better choices for the role; Ritchie and Law, I must confess, don't sound like natural fits.

But this one does. The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Rachel McAdams has joined the cast playing Holmes' love interest, Irene Adler. Writes Watson in A Scandal in Bohemia, the only story in which Adler makes an appearance, "To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex."

So that'll be Rachel McAdams. The relationship is actually a lot more complicated than love. As Watson says shortly after the quote above, Holmes really doesn't love. But because of the stature of Arthur Conan Doyle's Holmes series and because Adler's name is mentioned throughout it, she qualifies as the closest thing to a love interest Holmes ever had. And given that Ritchie et al are changing up so many other things about the character, you can presume that their relationship will go to at least second base.

As for McAdams, I think the decision is perfect. The character is an American opera singer who retired and moved to Europe, so she won't have to lug an accent around with her (although her southern accent in the new release The Lucky Ones is pretty strong). She's also wonderful to look at in a film, so we won't have to suspend too much disbelief on behalf of Holmes. And, she's a better actress than she gets credit for. I just wish she did more of it, frankly. And The Reporter says she's signed on for multiple films.

I wonder, now that we have characters from specific moments in Holmes' life with Moriarty and Adler, what will the story be? It can't be A Scandal in Bohemia, because Moriarty isn't in that. And Adler's not in anything else. So, and again this is a presumption, this will probably just be an amalgamation of Sherlock stuff. Whether that works or not remains to be seen.

Colin Boyd |

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