Shadows on the Wall | The Sheep Detectives

The Sheep Detectives

dir Kyle Balda
scr Craig Mazin
prd Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lindsay Doran
with Hugh Jackman, Nicholas Braun, Nicholas Galitzine, Emma Thompson, Hong Chau, Molly Gordon, Tosin Cole, Conleth Hill
voices Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston, Chris O'Dowd, Regina Hall, Patrick Stewart, Bella Ramsey, Brett Goldstein, Rhys Darby
release US/UK 8.May.26
26/Ireland MGM 1h49

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Skewing very young, this corny whodunit deploys sharp humour and surprisingly dark edges to hold a grown-up's attention, but there are moments when we wonder why we're watching. With his first live-action movie, Minions director Kyle Balda leans heavily on digital imagery, which makes the sheep feel rather uncanny. But the Babe-meets-The Thursday Murder Club premise is enjoyable, and the characters are endearingly silly. So it's warm-hearted fun.

In a chocolate-box British village, farmer George (Jackman) loves living in a caravan in a field with his sheep, naming them and reading them mystery novels each night. So when he is mysteriously murdered, the sheep decide to solve the crime themselves, led by smart Lily (voiced by Louis-Dreyfus) with help from cynical loner ram Sebastian (Cranston) and Mopple (O'Dowd), the only sheep with a long memory. They offer help to bumbling local cop Tim (Braun), who assembles the villagers who seem suspicious. Then George's lawyer Lydia (Thompson) arrives with his long-lost daughter Rebecca (Gordon).

Of course, each local could be the culprit, including neighbour shepherd Caleb (Cole), who had a fight with George, and hotelier Beth (Chau), who had a crush on him. Not to mention the butcher (Hill) who wants the sheep. There's also novice journalist Elliot (Galitzine) poking around. The flock watches everyone closely, shifting from one suspect to the next while pursuing various bewildering clues. All of this is fairly jaunty, even with serious moments such as when the sheep must confront the concept of death. Or when Caleb's vicious guard dogs attack.

While the charming on-screen actors play up the goofiness, they occasionally tap into more interesting emotions. And the vocal cast invests sparky personality, as each sheep is a distinct type, including Hall's airhead pampered Cloud, Stewart's fusty Sir Ritchfield and Goldstein's gangster rams Ronnie and Reggie. There's also a shamelessly adorable nameless lamb who has been cast out from the flock for being born in the winter, so we know there are lessons for the others to learn.

Where all this goes isn't remotely surprising, but Mazin's script playfully inverts the genre by approaching all of the usual plot points from an askance angle. And it's fairly impossible to solve the mystery before Lily does. So the film is steadily entertaining, keeping a smile on our face even if we don't laugh out loud quite as often as we hoped. And even if the film dives very deeply into sentimentality in the final act.

themes, violence 9.Apr.26

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