This one proves Tim Burton's an absolute master. Billy Crudup hears his dying dad (Albert Finney) recount his implausible life story. Ewan McGregor embodies the young Finney as these tall tales are realised with wow-factor wizardry: a giant, a war, a circus—it's Fellini with a colour box. The climax skilfully plays your scepticism off against your dreams, somehow allowing both to win. Small ponds of audience tears ensue.
Sad, funny and cynical, Billy Wilder's 1970 movie presents a classically Holmesian mystery—a missing person case which ends with the Loch Ness Monster—as cover for an exploration of the great detective's myth, seeking to identify the crippled man behind the machine-like facade. Beautifully shot, the movie was cut by the studio and ignored by critics, but it's gorgeous. Robert Stephens is a complex Holmes, Colin Blakely a most human Watson.
