The Adventure of the Final Problem: the Lost Sherlock Holmes Story

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THE ADVENTURE OF THE FINAL PROBLEM (2010)

User rating: 0.2 out of 10 stars (based on 293481908 reviews)

Down 97% in popularity this week. (See why on IMBD pro.)

Director: Holly Combs

Writer: Holly Combs (screenplay)

Release Date: 20 April 2010 (USA)

Genre: Satire

Tagline: The lost story of Sherlock Holmes

Plot: (SPOILER ALERT!) Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has survived two wives, a son, and numerous other family members. Also, Doyle is tired of being associated with Sherlock Holmes because many believe that he is Sherlock Holmes, and at this time, he is attempting to write his final Sherlock Holmes adventure, in which Holmes will meet his death. Doyle is in a deep depression because of the many deaths in his family, and he is having trouble writing because of this. During a particularly bad episode of writer's block, he decides to call his old friend, magician Harry Houdini, to ask him for advice.

Because of Doyle's depression, he starts to become delusional as he talks to his old friend. Doyle asks Houdini to bring his family back to life with his magic powers. When Houdini explains that he does not truly possess magical powers and that his tricks are merely illusions, Doyle becomes irate. He accuses Houdini of being in cahoots with fairies and ends their friendship. Houdini is confused and offended.

Doyle finds inspiration in his anger and sets out to write the best Sherlock Holmes story that he can. He begins writing:

Sherlock Holmes loved cocaine. He loves everything about it that kept his mind busy. However, his dearest friend Dr. Watson was not such a fan of the stuff. One day, Sherlock Holmes is in his study, doing cocaine, when Watson interrupts. Watson is worried that Holmes is doing too many drugs, and he decides that he could no longer be around Holmes when he is doing so many drugs. Watson leaves Holmes to his cocaine, and Holmes decides that cocaine is his new best friend and his replacement Watson.

Almost immediately after Watson walks out on Holmes, a red-headed damsel in distress appears at Holmes' doorstep. The damsel begs for Holmes to solve a mystery for her, and he accepts the case. Holmes ventures out to look for clues whilst drinking and smoking his pipe. He is wandering down a hallway when he begins to feel that a clue could be near.

At this time, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle takes a break from writing to wallow in his sadness and to send Harry Houdini a text saying that his story is going well and that he knows that Houdini is truly magical.

Doyle then goes back to writing:

Holmes finds a clue in the hallway but realizes a second too late that the clue has been a set-up. A masked man comes up behind Holmes, beats him unconscious, and captures him. When Holmes reawakens, he is duct taped to a chair in a super villain's lair. He realizes that cocaine was no substitute for his friend Watson, but again, his realization comes too late. The masked man who kidnapped Holmes appears and reveals himself to be Harry Houdini, or Fairy Houdini, King of the Fairies. Holmes remarks, "The illusions were real," before Houdini uses his fairy powers to force choke Holmes to death, laughing maniacally all the while.

Once Holmes is dead, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle decides that he doesn't like where the story has gone; he decides to write an entire book on the existence of fairies instead.

Plot Keywords: Satire, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, fairies, Harry Houdini, mystery, Sherlock Holmes, detective, drug abuse

User Reviews:

"Though the cinematography and acting are questionable, I can appreciate The Adventure of the Final Problem for what it is: a satire. Combs chooses to focus on the time in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's life when he was the least stable (and arguably the most interesting). Many may find it hard to believe that such an intelligent man (a knighted doctor and famed writer) died fighting to convince the world that fairies exist, but this is true to his biography. I personally believe that by the time that Doyle began ranting about fairies, he may have been going through a version of Post-traumtic Stress Syndrome or just a sort of delusional depression brought on by the numerous deaths in his family, especially that of his beloved wife Louisa, but this is only speculation. In Doyle's life he truly was friends with magician Harry Houdini, and they really did have a public falling out because Doyle believed Houdini to be magical when Houdini insisted his tricks were merely illusion. Though these events were not as closely related as Combs portrayed them in her film, they were both eccentricities dealing with spiritualism that arose in Doyle's later life, and I can understand why she would link them in the satire. Many biographers believe that Doyle began to go mad in his later years, and if this is the case, the portrait of Doyle in this film is accurate. Also, the title of the film, The Adventure of the Final Problem, is very close to the name of the story where Doyle actually kills off Sherlock Holmes, which is just called "The Final Problem." Perhaps the audience should be led to believe that the film is an early draft of this story or a re-write of it.

However, Combs' film not only pokes fun at Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for his ridiculous beliefs, but also pokes fun at the character Sherlock Holmes, grossly exaggerating his love of drugs, as depicted in "The Sign of Four." In the film, Holmes replaces his companion Watson with cocaine because Watson doesn't want to be around when Holmes does drugs. In the short story, Watson also objects to Holmes' drug use. Because Watson is absent during most of Combs' film, Holmes drinks too much, does too many drugs, and has no one to look out for him during his expeditions. Because of this, Holmes falls into a trap and is captured by a magician/fairy and killed. This attempts to show the importance of Watson's character in Doyle's short stories. Watson takes care of of Holmes in many ways and helps Holmes despite his arrogance. Holmes needs Watson to come to his rescue, just like in "The Empty House," when Watson needed Holmes to help him solve the mystery.

The satirical detective story in Combs' tale falls just short of the Ellery Queen standards. In this version of Sherlock Holmes, there is a detective who detects, though sometimes he detects incorrectly (which leads him to being kidnapped). This detective is the protagonist, though he may be more of an anti-hero in this telling, as his drug problems seem to rule his life and he's a dick to his friend Watson who cares about him. However, the Holmes does not triumph over the criminal. In fact, he is killed by the criminal. This laughable criminal ("Fairy Houdini") is supposed to be a spoof off of Harry Houdini. Doyle is angry at Houdini and perhaps believes that if he models the villain who kills Sherlock Holmes after him, fans of Sherlock Holmes will turn against Houdini.

In many detective stories I have read, there is at least one character with wild (and incorrect) suppositions as to how the crime can be solved. These characters are unable to use simple logic with deduction and induction in the way that genius detective like Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and Edgar Allen Poe's Dupin are able to. Characters like Utterson (The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), the police (Poe's Dupin Stories), and Sharpin (The Biter Bit) are quick to jump to conclusions concerning the crimes they inspect without looking logically at the possibilities. After years of writing stories about a genius of logic and then becoming entangled with his character, in Doyle's later years, his beliefs turned out to be less rooted in logic and more deeply rooted in fantasy (for example, his main argument for the existence of fairies was based on obviously doctored photos of fairies). This is drastically different from what many would expect the creator of Sherlock Holmes to believe. Combs' film does a great job of showing the illogical side of Doyle and then imposing that ridiculous side of him on the character he was so often mistaken for.

I give it ten stars."

-moviegoerjoe7827

"This movie sucks. The acting is terrible. The voice-overs remind me of bad Kung-fu movies.

I give it half a star."

-littlevickyzombie42

"Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is HOT.

I give his body 10 stars."

-elementarywatson55