movie review
THE SHEEP DETECTIVES
Running time: 109 minutes. Rated PG (thematic material, some violent content and brief language). In theaters.
A word of advice on the new movie “Sheep Detectives”: Give it a bleat. Sorry, a beat.
The family film begins rather treacly, with a shepherd named George played by Hugh Jackman waxing poetic about his extreme love for his sheep. I was simultaneously annoyed and creeped out.
Every member of his flock has a name and a distinct personality. The animal obsessive reads mysteries to them nightly. George’s narrated intro is so syrupy sweet it makes “Babe” look like “The Silence of the Lambs.”
And then… he gets murdered! The movie morphs into a darker but kid-friendly Miss Marple yarn with eccentric village suspects. Butterknives Out. After the good shepherd is fatally poisoned by inedible parts of a yew tree, the situation becomes much better. Well, for us anyway — not for George.
Speaking of baa-ram-ewe “Babe,” the lively livestock also talk amongst themselves — in a confusing variety of accents — and they set off to solve the crime.
The most obvious possible killer is Rebecca (Molly Gordon), George’s previously unknown daughter who has conveniently just arrived in town. It turns out her pop had invented a farming medicine that made him a low-key millionaire. She is poised to inherit his wealth. Must be her, right?
Not so fast. Nearby competing shepherd Caleb (Tosin Cole) has a motive, too. Even Reverend Hillcoate (Kobna Holdbrook-Smith), with whom George had a frosty relationship, could’ve done the deed.
A bumbling local policeman played by Nicholas Braun with Cousin Greg’s wide-eyed naivety works to find the perp while a junior reporter named Elliot (Nicholas Galitzine) tries to make a name for himself at the newspaper.
Besides Braun and Emma Thompson’s cold-blooded lawyer, the rest of the humans are just fine. Hugh goes full-on Mr. Jackman’s Neighborhood. That doesn’t matter. It’s the sheep who are the stars.
Our Shear-lock Holmes is Lily (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), George’s favorite who always is first to correctly guess who the perp is in his novels. She leads the investigation and hunts for clues.
Louis-Dreyfus was a smart choice to give voice to determined Lily. Much like Amy Poehler in the “Inside Out” movies, her sound has both a warmth and a no-BS attitude.
Most of the others wool-wearers are colorful sidekicks, like Brett Goldstein’s bro-y Reggie and Ronnie, a couple of horned beasts who can’t stop ramming into each other, and pompous old bird Sir Richfield (Patrick Stewart), who insists the group shun a cute baby lamb for being born in winter.
However, brooding loner Sebastian (Bryan Cranston) is a more dramatic grazer. With a gravely brogue, he reveals an anguished backstory and suffers a fate that will be a tough watch for the littlest viewers. Director Kyle Balda’s movie really takes such a sharp turn from children’s morning TV to baby “Broadchurch.”
In that sense, it’s true to the spirit of “Babe” — a best picture Oscar nominee, remember! — which didn’t spare kids from the reality of what actually happens to pigs on farms.
Where “Sheep Detective” departs, though, is the execution of the chatty creatures — they are CGI rather than tactile puppets. The barnyard bunch look good enough to believe, but there is nonetheless an odd lack of naturalism to their movement. Their gate doesn’t match their weight. That’s a nitpick.
Impressively, the parlor scene — or, in this case, the town square scene — that reveals the identity of the killer comes as a decent, well-thought-out surprise. The evidence adds up cleverly and the script doesn’t coast on its status as a nice family movie in order to avoid delivering a satisfying conclusion.
It’s meaty, like a roast leg of, well you know.
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