Sherlock Holmes is a 2009 period mystery action film starring Robert Downey Jr. as the character of the same name created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

The film was directed by Guy Ritchie and produced by Joel Silver, Lionel Wigram, Susan Downey, and Dan Lin.

The film, set in 1890, follows eccentric detective Holmes and his companion Watson investigating the crimes of Lord Blackwood, a mysticist who has seemingly risen from the dead.

Rachel McAdams stars as Holmes' former adversary Irene Adler and Mark Strong portrays villain Lord Henry Blackwood.

[3] In 1891 London, private detective Sherlock Holmes and his partner Dr. John Watson prevent the ritualistic murder of a woman by Lord Henry Blackwood, a noble who has killed five women previously and claims to have supernatural powers.

Following a series of clues from the body, Holmes and Watson find Reordan's lab and discover experiments attempting to merge science with magic.

Ambassador Standish and Home Secretary Lord Coward, and they ask Holmes to stop Blackwood, a former member of the society and Rotheram's secret illegitimate son.

When he explains his plan to seize control of the British Empire and reconquer the United States, Standish attempts to shoot him but bursts into flames when he fires his gun, and flees out a window to his death.

With the aid of Lestrade, Holmes surrenders and is taken to Coward, where he sees evidence on his clothes to deduce that Blackwood has conducted a ceremony in the sewers beneath the Palace of Westminster.

Blackwood falls through the scaffolding and Holmes reveals he has deduced that all of his supposed supernatural feats were achieved through science and theatrical trickery, aided by Reordan's experiments.

[24] Jared Harris, who played Moriarty in the sequel Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, re-dubbed Jack's lines for later home media releases and television broadcasts of the film.

Very often, Sherlock Holmes will say things like, "If I hadn't been such an expert short [single] stick person, I would have died in that" or he would refer to a fight off-screen.

The plot point, moreover, nods to the Holmesian tale of The Hound of the Baskervilles, where a string of seemingly supernatural events is finally explained through intuitive reasoning and scientific savvy.

Arthur Conan Doyle's estate had some involvement in sorting out legal issues, although the stories are in the public domain in the United States.

He wanted to make his film more "authentic" to Doyle,[8] explaining, "There's quite a lot of intense action sequences in the stories, [and] sometimes that hasn't been reflected in the movies.

[22] When filming at St John's Street in December, the schedule had to be shortened from 13 to nine days because locals complained about how they would always have to park cars elsewhere during the shoot.

Ritchie wanted his Holmes' costume to play against the popular image of the character, joking "there is only one person in history who ever wore a deerstalker".

1 in the weekend box office, behind Sing, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, that film's 2007 predecessor, and A Star Is Born.

The site's critical consensus reads, "Guy Ritchie's directorial style might not be quite the best fit for an update on the legendary detective, but Sherlock Holmes benefits from the elementary appeal of a strong performance by Robert Downey, Jr."[48] On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average to reviews, the film has a score of 57 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

[54] Some commentators criticised elements of the script such as the representation of Irene Adler, with Todd McCarthy of Variety feeling her character was "not very well integrated into the rest of the story, a shortcoming the normally resourceful McAdams is unable to do much about".

[55] Like McCarthy, Scott is critical of Adler's character, stating, "Ms. McAdams is a perfectly charming actress and performs gamely as the third wheel of this action-bromance tricycle.

"[53] Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman found the film "both fun and numb, enjoyable and exhausting", finding Strong's character one-dimensional, and McAdams "enticing in such a sweet Victorian way that it seems perverse for the movie to muffle the romantic spark between her and our hero."

[60] A third film is currently in development hell, with Downey and Law again reprising their roles, Dexter Fletcher replacing Ritchie as director, and Chris Brancato writing the script.