Sherlock Jr.

Just over 40 minutes long, Buster Keaton’s Sherlock Jr. (1924) is built upon one of the more self-reflexive ideas of silent cinema—accused of a crime for which you are framed, what would occur if you were to be transplanted into the veritable fantasy-world of cinema, blessed with the candor and intelligence of Sherlock Holmes, and given the opportunity to expose the cocky [CENSORED BY BLOGSPOT MANAGEMENT] who tried to set you up.

In Sherlock Jr. what follows are the typically genius Keatonisms, a tender love story crafted around meticulous stunts, visual gags, and commentary on the nature of the filmgoer, with this latter idea buttressed by the psychological split between time and space as it corresponds to the filmgoer imagining a reverie of participation in what is only a medium mediated by all that is cinematically shown. That is to say, cinema itself predicates how we dream, how we fictionalize ourselves. Thus, in order to win the heart of his beloved and regain his good name, the bumbling squire (Keaton) goes into the movies and becomes an enforcer of the law with the pedigree of absolute assurance, outsmarting the conniving villains at every turn.

Yet within all of this there exists a commentary of class and the cultural expectation for the proper social work of marriage. Keaton is judged by the counter girl at the shop with chocolates (it is chocolate, right?) when he lacks the proper money to court his beloved, and this unspoken bemusement by the counter girl sets in motion the rest of Keaton’s misfortune. Of related interest is the manner in which Keaton suggests that for all of the elaborate designs and giddy fantasies, in reality it is the woman, who of course suspects that something is afoul by the perpetrator once Keaton is accused, who does all of the real detective work and rights the wrong being perpetuated. She, not Keaton, is the true hero in all of this, for cinema also has the potential to blind us to action, allowing daydreams and reverie to be conflated with a genuine real-world response. Moreover, as we see so memorably at the film’s close, it still doesn’t instruct us how to have babies at this point in time.

Sherlock Jr.: 10/10