Mr. Holmes

While the game is still afoot for the legendary sleuth, it moves a little more slowly in Mr. Holmes, an absorbing character study from director Bill Condon (Dreamgirls) that proves again the timeless appeal of Arthur Conan Doyle’s venerable gumshoe.

Those seeking a classic Sherlock Holmes mystery need to look elsewhere, but this more intimate look at the famous detective in his final years provides a tender examination of nostalgia and mortality.

As the film opens in 1947, Holmes (Ian McKellen) has traded in his iconic office at 221B Baker Street for a seaside estate outside of London, where he walks with a cane and irascibly shows contempt for his live-in housekeeper (Laura Linney), who resides there with her impressionable young son (Milo Parker).

Having retired from public life, he spends most days tending to his backyard apiary and trying to jog his fading memory for anecdotes to fill his memoir. He’s recently returned from a trip to Japan, where he witnessed firsthand the devastation at Hiroshima and consulted with a man (Hiroyuki Sanada) who helped him procure a substance rumored to help combat the effects of dementia.

Meanwhile, Holmes also is still haunted by the details of his final case, shown in flashbacks from decades earlier, that of a husband (Patrick Kennedy) afraid that his wife (Hattie Morahan) has been brainwashed by her music teacher after trying to find an outlet for her sadness following the loss of two children during childbirth.

It’s amusing to contrast Mr. Holmes with other big-screen incarnations of the character, most notably the recent franchise starring Robert Downey Jr. This is considerably more low-key and old-fashioned, with a deliberate pace that feels appropriately elegiac.

Still, the screenplay by Jeffrey Hatcher (The Duchess), adapted from a 2005 novel by Mitch Cullin, is witty and poignant without losing its lighthearted touch — for example, when Holmes ventures into a movie theater and casually dismisses the exaggerations in a Basil Rathbone performance as Holmes.

McKellen is superb in the title role, playing a man whose physical constraints can’t dull a sharp mind. The film conveys Holmes’ continued obsession with curious details around him, such as a stray spot of dust on a staircase or a misplaced garment in his closet.

While its narrative structure is uneven, the film’s conclusions are logical. And as Holmes himself would tell you, that’s what matters most.

Rated PG, 103 minutes.