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Film Brain is shocked to discover that what he thought was going to be sheepishly cute whodunnit sendup is actually surprisingly poignant...
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00:00Hello and welcome to Projector, and on this episode, Hugh Jackman has been murdered,
00:04and it's up to his flock to solve the mystery in the, you done it, The Sheep Detectives.
00:25George Hardy, player Hugh Jackman, is a shepherd that far prefers the company of his sheep to people,
00:31spending his nights reading them murder mystery books, unaware they do actually understand and enjoy them.
00:36When they find George murdered, his smartest sheep, Lily, voiced by Julie Louis-Dreyfus,
00:40becomes determined to try and find the culprit using what they've learned from George's books,
00:45and maybe even point the hapless human police officer, Tim, played by Nicholas Braun, in the right direction.
00:51The Sheep Detectives is based on the 2005 book, Three Bags Fall, by German writer Lainey Swan,
00:56which became a huge international bestseller.
00:59The book even got a sequel in 2010 about the sheep investigating a werewolf,
01:03no really, which finally got an English translation last year under the title Big Bad Wool,
01:09presumably to capitalise on this film adaptation.
01:12So you know, there is sequel potential if this does well.
01:16The film version is written by Craig Mazin, the creator of Chernobyl and The Last of Us,
01:20presumably making up for the days when he had credits on the sequels to Scary Movie and The Hangover.
01:25Mazin has wanted to make a film with a book for a long time,
01:27and he spent a decade pursuing the rights before he finally got them.
01:31And it should be noted that the book and the film are very different animals,
01:35and the adaptation makes substantial changes to make it more palatable to a family audience,
01:40because it does get properly dark, especially with the shepherd George,
01:44who is a far less clean-cut character than he is in the film.
01:48In the book, he's a drug trafficker using his sheep as mules for marijuana,
01:53the other kind of grass, which, needless to say, is not in this movie.
01:59It's not a child-friendly book if you're looking to read it as a bedtime story after seeing the film.
02:04So the film is a very loose adaptation that takes the basic concepts and characters,
02:09but largely goes in its own direction.
02:10That might explain why Mazin has a story credit on the film which is unusual for something that is already
02:16based on existing source material,
02:18and the adaptation credit is, in the end, cruel.
02:21But as I keep saying, we are in the midst of a full-blown resurgence of the murder mystery,
02:26or as the trailer for this film calls it, a herder mystery.
02:31We're seeing them pop up all over the place,
02:34but we've recently seen an interesting space of the name towards younger viewers.
02:37Some of you might recall that I very recently reviewed Flavia, another family whodunit,
02:43which was also based on a book.
02:44And so these movies are not just playing towards older viewers who are familiar with the usual conventions of these
02:49kind of stories,
02:50but also introducing them to kids as well.
02:53And The Sheet Detectives is both a homage and a loving send-up
02:57that calls attention to those very same tropes as part of the plot.
03:01There's a lot of talk about rules, the predictable patterns that will help them solve the case,
03:06and sure enough, when you think back upon it,
03:09you realise that the movie has been dutifully obeying them right in front of you.
03:13It has so much meta-talk about genre rules that it almost rivals a Scream movie,
03:18which are murder mystery send-ups now that I think about it, so it does check out.
03:23But pointing at the conventions also allows kids to understand it better,
03:26even if, and I pointed this out with Flavia as well,
03:29the exposition can be somewhat laboured to make absolutely sure they're following along.
03:34But the best way of describing The Sheet Detectives is as simple as
03:37It's Knives Out Meets Babe.
03:39In fact, it's pretty clear the latter was a massive influence for this,
03:43given it follows a similar plot structure and beats.
03:46And even Jackman drops a
03:48That'll do,
03:49that my generation will have to refrain themselves from adding
03:52Pig onto.
03:53And the film is certainly at its best when it focuses on the flock,
03:56air by an absolutely stacked voice cast from top to bottom,
04:00even in smaller roles like Patrick Stewart as an elder sheep with Orv,
04:03Regina Hall's vain cloud,
04:05or Rhys Darby's woolleyes who clumsily can't see what he's doing.
04:09There's also Brett Goldstein in a dual role as Ram's Ronnie and Reggie,
04:13named after the infamous Kray twins,
04:15and just as equally want to bash things up as much as their namesake.
04:19The effects for The Sheets themselves are top-notch.
04:21Once again, the creature experts at Framestore,
04:24known for the Pankton films,
04:25are responsible for much of it.
04:27And they strike the right balance of making sure they're relatively photorealistic,
04:30but still having enough room to be expressive and distinct.
04:34Kyle Boulder, who directed the Minions films,
04:36and has a long VFX background,
04:38is the director,
04:39which makes perfect sense,
04:41considering this is a live-action animation hybrid,
04:44where the latter has to carry the vast majority of the runtime,
04:47and also integrate itself with the on-set actors.
04:50But he's also got a pretty good sense of comic timing too,
04:53and you can see that in some of the more elaborate slapstick set pieces,
04:57especially when Chris O'Dowd's mopple runs blindfolded all through a house.
05:01You can easily imagine a version of this where it's entirely animated,
05:05and it does have that visual sensibility.
05:08A lot of the humour comes from the sheep having to navigate themselves in the human world.
05:12They live a very simple existence that's almost like a child's eye view of the world,
05:17and willfully oblivious when it comes to uncomfortable truths,
05:21choosing to collectively forget together rather than confront it.
05:25But they're forced to go out of their comfort zone,
05:27or rather their hillside,
05:28if they want to catch the killer,
05:30and find themselves having to try and work through the human world,
05:34both in terms of physical things like hedges, doors, and windows that can block them,
05:39but also understanding more complicated concepts that includes religion.
05:44And there's a bit where naturally the sheep get confused about the concept of a shepherd
05:48and God as a spiritual concept, which flummoxes their woolly minds.
05:54But if human traditions are inexplicable to the sheep,
05:56then so is some of their own.
05:58In particular, they're intolerant to sheep born in the winter,
06:01who are shunned by the rest of the flock for being born out of season.
06:04There's a cute little winter lamb who's isolated,
06:07and their behaviour makes no sense to George,
06:10as much as he tries to raise it by hand.
06:13Now, I did actually look this up, by the way,
06:15and while sheep do often reject their offspring,
06:18this winter lamb thing appears to be a bit of a myth of creative license.
06:22Needless to say, this is not a David Attenborough documentary about sheep,
06:26and you probably shouldn't be going in with that kind of expectation.
06:30Although, according to one article, someone did.
06:32Much more familiar with the world of humans is Black Ram Sebastian,
06:36voiced by Bryan Cranston,
06:38renamed for Othello in the book for fairly obvious reasons.
06:41Sebastian is himself something of a brooding loner,
06:44because he was also a winter lamb,
06:46but he also has a strong connection with George, who rescued him.
06:49Sebastian is jaded and cynical because of what he's gone through,
06:53but he does a lily as much as he doubts her,
06:57warning them of the dangers of humans.
06:59Cranston gives an excellent voice performance here,
07:02selling the cranky laugh lines as much as his character's pathos.
07:06The humour is often quite gentle,
07:08and while never laugh out loud funny, it is pretty amusing,
07:12but underpinning the lighter stuff is a darkness.
07:16Not as dark as the book, obviously,
07:18but this is still a movie dealing with a fatality,
07:21and there is a side to it that is surprisingly existential.
07:24It's a film that does actually allude to the big questions,
07:28often asked by the chatterbox lamb Zora,
07:30voiced by Bella Ramsey,
07:32who is almost endlessly inquisitive.
07:34You see, the sheep believe that when they die,
07:37they'll turn peacefully into clouds,
07:39but when they find George's body,
07:41it's also the first time they have to confront the idea of death directly.
07:45And being detectives,
07:46they keep making discoveries that are not always pleasant.
07:50But they have to find justice for George,
07:52not just as a way of saving themselves,
07:54but also closure,
07:56rather than just simply forgetting him.
07:58It's a movie that is about death and grief,
08:01and it explores that in a way that is accessible for young viewers,
08:05but poignant enough to be quite affecting for adults.
08:08It's very unexpectedly bittersweet,
08:11and I did find myself genuinely moved by it at points
08:14in a way that took me completely by surprise.
08:16I wouldn't have believed before seeing it
08:19that the sheep detectives would give me a bit of a lump in my throat,
08:21but that's exactly what happened.
08:24And do you think Louis Dreyfus is perfectly cast for the lead role of Lily,
08:27who can handle the more comic and dramatic sides of it,
08:30but also well-suited for what I was going to describe as a fluffy Miss Marple,
08:34until I discovered that the name of the character in the book
08:37was in fact Miss Maple.
08:39Lily might be the smartest sheep,
08:41but she's not the most worldly,
08:43and she has to understand that she doesn't know everything.
08:46I do think that a lot of the cast were specifically chosen
08:49for their ability to handle both the laughs and emotions of the script,
08:53as Chris O'Dowell's Mopple is a blundering character,
08:56but he also has one of the film's bigger dramatic reveals as well.
09:00It is commendable that the movie accomplishes this very delicate balance in tone,
09:04but that's exactly the point.
09:06Life, in all its complexities,
09:07is about dealing with difficult things like loss and change
09:10that makes the moments of joy and happiness even more significant.
09:14That is a lot more depth than I would have expected for a film like this.
09:18When it comes to the human characters,
09:20The Sheet Detectives is far less short-hoofed,
09:23something which it has inherited somewhat from its source material,
09:25although the fact that it's helmed by a director who is more known for animation
09:28might have something to do with it too.
09:31Hugh Jackman may have top billing,
09:33but obviously he doesn't stick around for very long because he's the victim,
09:36and he largely exits the film around the 15-minute mark.
09:40George is a lot cleaner cut than his book counterpart,
09:43so Jackman gives warmth and theatricality to his early scenes
09:46where he tends and reads to his flock,
09:49but also a touch of that Wolverine bitterness
09:51in his interactions with almost everyone else.
09:55Jackman pops up periodically through the rest of it,
09:57either in flashbacks or in dream sequences with Lily,
10:00but he's such a big presence that it does lend the film
10:03a needed sense of absence when he departs.
10:06Mostly it's this big ensemble piece,
10:09all set in the small fictional English town of Denbrook,
10:12although it does have a bit of a transatlantic vibe to it
10:14because of the casting and the American filmmakers.
10:17This is also a change from the book,
10:18where the fictional Glenn Kill was in Ireland.
10:22It's also very much a chocolate box view of England
10:25that's very eye-poppingly colourful,
10:27and clearly a lot of the businesses here
10:29are using the services of the neon sign makers in town.
10:32That even comes down to the knitwear that most of the characters wear,
10:35which you'd always expect given this is a film about sheep,
10:38and is very much Knives Out approved.
10:40Tosin Cole's rival, Shepard Caleb,
10:42who has his eyes on George's sheep now that he's died,
10:45has some especially strong jumper game, I've noticed.
10:48But this being a whodunit,
10:49nearly everyone in town is a suspect
10:51with a reason to potentially bump George off
10:53because they've all got their own grudges,
10:55including Conleth Hill's ham,
10:57a butchery despised,
10:59to code Neholbrook Smith as the town's reverend,
11:01who George made a very large donation to on the day before his death.
11:06There's also Hong Chao's innkeeper Beth,
11:08who's nursing a massive jealous crush on George,
11:11but the very talented Chao is extremely underutilised here,
11:14as well as wrestling with a very wobbly attempt at an English accent,
11:18although she's not the only one, in fairness.
11:21And that's before Emma Thompson pops up as George's lawyer Lydia,
11:25to reveal that he had a wealthy inheritance,
11:27and she gets quite a few chuckles out of her haughtily particular snob
11:31that has little patience for fools,
11:33even if it is largely an exposition role
11:35that doesn't give her an awful lot to do.
11:38Also new in town is Molly Gordon,
11:40as George's estranged daughter Rebecca,
11:42who is increasingly falling under suspicion,
11:45given the tie of her arrival,
11:46and that she stands to inherit most from his death and his will.
11:50Unfortunately, the case is in the hands of dormless local policeman Tim,
11:53who has absolutely no clue,
11:55and certainly can't see them right in front of him.
11:58I quite like Nicholas Braun's portrayal of an absolute dipstick,
12:02even if again he's got a bit of a questionable accent,
12:04but he does make the character endearingly good-natured,
12:07as he tries to prove himself.
12:09Luckily, he's got a bit of help from visiting reporter Elliot,
12:12plumber Nicholas Galitzane,
12:13who apparently Amazon and MGM are putting a lot of stock in this year,
12:17as he's seen to be seen as He-Man
12:18in the Master of the Universe movie next month.
12:21Galitzane's definitely Clark Kenting it here,
12:23with his glasses and loose clothing hiding his rippling muscles,
12:27but is Elliot at least knows how to photograph a crime scene,
12:30or an awareness that is even a crime scene at all,
12:33to give Tim some handy little tips on how to do his job properly?
12:38The rest of those come from the sheep,
12:39who have to increasingly try to direct his limited deduction,
12:43although I did find it quite amusing
12:45that he's stupid enough to take commands from farm animals,
12:47but smart enough to realise that they are genuinely trying to help him.
12:51Although, of all the human characters,
12:53Tim might be the one who steals the show,
12:56as much as the show can be stolen from those sheep anyway.
12:59When I first saw the trailer for this film,
13:01I thought it was an absolutely bizarre premise,
13:03and I just thought it was going to be a silly, broad comedy.
13:06But like the flock in the movie,
13:08I underestimated the sheep detectives.
13:11Now, it does have its issues.
13:12It actually has quite a slow start at first,
13:15and the tone does initially make you think
13:17it's only going to be aimed at kids,
13:19but over time, it does develop a certain charm,
13:22revealing itself as not just a very sweet and cute film,
13:25but also one with a surprising amount of depth as well.
13:29Yes, it isn't laugh-out-loud funny,
13:31but perhaps it shouldn't be,
13:33but it is enough to balance out the fact
13:34that it is ultimately about the inevitability of grief,
13:37in a way which is accessible and emotionally affecting.
13:40It's a good example of a family movie done right,
13:43in a little appeal to both kids and adults,
13:45and I think they'll see the movie differently too,
13:48as those themes become more resonant with age.
13:51It's a movie that I think will age quite well,
13:54and will be a bit of a cheaper hit.
13:57Okay, I'll stop now.
13:58I'd honestly say this has to be one of the year's
14:00most pleasant surprises,
14:01and proof that just because something's fluffy
14:04doesn't mean it's insubstantial.
14:07But about that werewolf-themed sequel,
14:09can we greenlight that immediately?
14:12If you like this review and you want to support my work,
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14:16or where YouTube's Sue Thanks feature,
14:18which is right below the video.
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14:24among other perks,
14:24including access to my Discord server,
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14:29Or you can just simply like, share, and hype the video.
14:32It really is a great help.
14:34Until next time,
14:35I'm Matthew Buck,
14:37fading out.
14:37.
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