Hugh Jackman and Emma Thompson star in the family murder mystery The Sheep Detectives.
This is another book adaptation, from Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story.
The film follows a lonely shepherd, George Hardy (Hugh Jackman), who reads a murder mystery book to his flock of sheep, not actually realising they can understand him.
When Hardy perishes, his flock of Sheep set out to investigate his untimely death.
Film News Blitz writer Bella Ford shares her thoughts (spoilers ahead)…
Rating: ★★★.5
Stacked cast
Jackman leads an all-star cast in The Sheep Detectives.
From the film’s trailer, we know Jackman’s shepherd is murdered, kicking off an investigation led by the local Police officer, who is known as being stupid and useless.
This also means Jackman only has about 20 minutes of screen time.
As for the sheep, they can forget bad things, except for Mopple, who has to live with it all.
Moreover, this is one hell of a famous flock!
George had two favourites, Lily (voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and the stoic Sebastian (Bryan Cranston); total opposites that develop a friendly bond throughout the film.
Also among the flock, they have the ‘sheep who can’t forget’, Mopple, voiced by Chris O’Dowd.
There’s also the gossiper called Cloud, voiced by Regina Hall, a slightly older sheep called Sir Richfield, voiced by Patrick Stewart, and the boisterous brothers Reggie and Ronnie, who are both voiced by Brett Goldstein.
The suspects
George is dead, but why? Who would want to kill a shepherd who just keeps to himself out on the fields of Denbrook?
Well, apparently, he doesn’t, as it’s revealed that he has quite a few people whom he doesn’t like around town: our suspects.
The rival shepherd Caleb Merrow (Tosin Cole) makes more money than George; he’s good-looking and has a flashy pickup truck.
The other suspects include the butcher Ham Gilyard (Conleth Hill) and hotel manager Beth Pennock (Hong Chau), who was madly in love with George.
And there’s George’s daughter, Rebecca, who arrives a day after his death for a visit – coincidence?
They are all prime suspects, almost like Cluedo.
Emma Thompson is also portraying George’s attorney, Lydia Harbottle; Nicholas Galitzine is the local reporter Elliott Matthews, and Nicholas Braun is the useless police officer Tim Derry.
Lily the sheep always figures out the endings of the murder mystery books George used to read to the flock; the other sheep are counting on her to figure this real-life case out.
Throughout the whole film, Lily and Sebastian team up and use their different brains to figure out clues.
It shows the audience that you have to be brave in life and do what’s right.
Final verdict
The emotional core really caught me off guard with this film.
The ending was classic; it put all of the characters under the spotlight and really tied everything together.
I loved how each character was so different and had a widely different personality.
It was a PG, so you could argue it was a kids’ film, but really, adults could enjoy it too.
Overall, this is a quality family film with perfect casting; it brings laughs and also highlights important feelings.
It has a nice ending, which will tug on the heartstrings. And the little inside jokes throughout the experience really make it.
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