You can’t pull the wool over all sheep’s eyes.
In the charming mystery, “The Sheep Detectives,” a flock of them work together to figure out who killed their owner.
He’s a quirky inventor (played by Hugh Jackman) who reads them mysteries at night. Like cars at a drive-in movie, they settle in and try to test their crime-solving skills. When he winds up dead, they go to work and try to figure out who might have done it.
Like an episode of “Murder, She Wrote,” this has plenty of suspects, including a daughter who stands to inherit the farm.
Director Kyle Balda takes a low-key approach to the story-telling and lets someone like Emma Thompson (as an attorney) have a field day.
Set in a quiet English village, the film takes advantage of lush fields, blue skies and telling clouds. It gives Nicholas Braun a bit of leeway, too, as the laconic police officer who doesn’t have the investigation skills to wrap this up quickly. The sheep, however, think it would be unfair to let the case go unsolved, so they use the background they gained from listening to unearth the clues.
It’s fascinating to watch, even though Balda uses too many celebrity voices (who happen to be American) to portray the sheep. While listening to their findings, you’ll play your own game of “whose voice is that?”
Like a good Agatha Christie mystery, this has one of those reveals that lets all the suspects gather in one room. It’s not hard to figure out who’s guilty, but the coda Balda includes is enough to prompt big tears.
“The Sheep Detectives” is one of those old-school family films (“Babe,” anyone?) that suggests good deeds are still possible. “Sheepish” isn’t the adjective you think it is.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source tucson.com ’
