The greatest movie ever made..!

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Disclaimer: I got really sleepy about 20 minutes into this movie, so I struggled to pay attention at times, and I know it hurts my viewing of the movie. Only once before have I felt tired during a movie: it was the new Godzilla movie, and I had been up all day by the time I went to see it in a dark room. I watched this movie during the afternoon with sunlight coming in; yet even when movies are boring, I never feel sleepy, so I have no idea what happened here. I'll do my best to review what I paid attention to.I struggled to follow the case that develops later in the story because I felt so tired, so I won't have much to say about it. I found the premise of the movie to be pretty intriguing, and it was interesting to see Sherlock Holmes be analyzed by Freud, whose analysis resembles Holmes' capabilities. The acting performances seemed good enough, but the camera-work was weird. There were some shots that were really good, like when it shows Holmes' viewpoint while high. Other shots had some wonky angles; it felt like I was watching a filmed play, which is not a compliment to the cinematographer. I can't quite place my finger on what was off, but something was. There were some really cheesy scenes, like Freud's real tennis match. That scene went on way too long and had a cliché outcome. The ending to the film, which reveals that Moriarty had an affair with Holmes' mother, was very surprising. That was great.Overall, the movie didn't leave much of an impression. I'm willing to watch it again, and hopefully I'd like it a bit more.6/10

This ingenious movie blends comedy, drama, action, and mystery in what constitutes a meeting of two extraordinary minds. One is that is of the brilliantly deductive sleuth, Sherlock Holmes (Nicol Williamson), the other is that of the cutting edge psychologist Sigmund Freud (Alan Arkin). A desperate Dr. Watson (Robert Duvall) believes that Freud may be the answer when Holmes falls victim to cocaine addiction and becomes increasingly unstable. He lures Holmes to Vienna on false pretenses, and while Holmes is naturally incensed at being lied to, he realizes the need to deal with his problem. As luck would have it, Holmes is drawn into a kidnapping scheme involving Lola Deveraux (Vanessa Redgrave), one of Freuds' patients.Written by Nicholas Meyer, from his own novel, this is filmed exquisitely, with lots of attention to detail and an obviously decent budget. It's directed with style by Herbert Ross, and the script is witty and entertaining. The scheme to be solved is not a particularly convoluted one, so viewers aren't likely to get lost watching this. John Addisons' music score is excellent, providing the perfect accompaniment. It's a treat to see these characters together, and also intriguing to take in the aspect of a Holmes who is far from perfect, and dealing with some severe psychological issues of his own. The great detective, as vulnerable as he is, comes to depend very highly on the hypnotism sessions with Freud. All of the material is played with a lot of heart and charm. The big action climax on the train is quite exciting, and how delightful it is to see Freud in the role of an action hero.Ultimately, it's the efforts of this superior cast that help "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution" to move along as well as it does. Duvall and Arkin contribute engaging low key characterizations, but most of the time it's Williamson who commands most of the attention. He has one incredible sequence where he assesses Freuds' life and practice. There are solid supporting players, too: Laurence Olivier as a plaintive Moriarty, Joel Grey as the weaselly Lowenstein, Samantha Eggar (rather wasted, really) as Watsons' wife, Jeremy Kemp as the dastardly Baron von Leinsdorf, Charles Gray as Mycroft Holmes, Regine as a singing madame, and Georgia Brown as Freuds' spouse.Don't miss this one; it's a real gem.Nine out of 10.

The DVD release of "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution" was in the early days of DVD production, which you can tell because it doesn't even have a menu separate from the chapters. (You'd almost think I was talking about the early days of film and/or sound pictures; it was only 10 years ago!) The original DVD edition was quite limited and is now out of print without another scheduled release. The OOP DVD edition (if you can find it) now runs as high as $100 to $150 at second-hand retail stores and $75 to $100 on online auctions. (I think Amazon marketplace sellers have copies starting at $120.) So the question is whether the movie itself justifies the equivalent of buying a new Blu-Ray player. Maybe, maybe not. And, in case you don't know, the story itself is not by Arthur Conan Doyle.To shell out $100+ for an entertainment flick of this sort is probably for hardcore Sherlock Holmes fans. This is not quite the deep suspense film I was expecting with a much more intellectual slant. "Seven Per-cent" is instead a fun mystery-thriller very much in the style of 1970's period pieces set anywhere between the 17th and early 20th centuries, such as "The Great Train Robbery", "Murder on the Orient Express", "The Three Musketeers", "The Count of Monte Cristo", etc. (These movies invariably starred either Sean Connery or Richard Chamberlain.) Seems like trains and sword-fighting were the staples of this era of film-making, and in "Seven Per-cent" you get both.The performance that really saves this film is Nicol Williamson as Sherlock Holmes. He provides a nervous-angst to the character that is rarely seen by the likes of Basil Rathbone and Jeremy Brett. And yet, after having seen Williamson's take on the immortal sleuth, you wonder if this is closer to what Arthur Conan Doyle had in mind. Holmes is somewhat of an intellectual recluse, and Williamson breathes life into this somewhat darker side of Holmes. Holmes was a great sleuth but not necessarily the easiest person with which to get on. The story begins with Holmes suffering from cocaine addiction, making him positively insufferable. His closest associate, Dr Watson (Robert Duvall), resolves to relocate Holmes to Vienna, Austria, for treatment at the hands of none-other than Sigmund Freud (Alan Arkin). Through interesting misdirection, Watson gets Holmes to Freud. Toward the end of his treatment, Holmes becomes enmeshed in another case involving Freud and one of his patients.The movie then literally moves at full-speed ahead with chases, brothels, sword fights, and the obligatory train sequence. However, unlike the first segment involving Holmes' treatment, the second act is never quite fully explained. Not unlike movies today, long action sequences take over the film and the underlying plot is not very well explained. This is certainly an enjoyable movie but far from being one of the best Sherlock Holmes films. The recent offering starring Robert Downey Jr has a bit more depth than this film made 35 years earlier, although Downey's character is 180-degrees from Doyle's. But that said, you almost can't beat Williamson's performance which has to rank as one of the best portrayals of England's greatest detective. If the studios re-released it on DVD, a new price of $15 to $20 seems a lot more elementary.

I really enjoyed this little fantasy film about the supposed treatment Sherlock Holmes received for his cocaine addiction from Dr. Freud. This is awfully strange, having a real-life and fictional character interact together, but the writers were able to make it work.Up front I should let you know that I am a huge Sherlock Holmes fan--having read all the stories several times. In most of my reviews for Holmes movies, I am very critical because they take such liberties with the stories--and almost always ruin the stories. At first, I was reticent to see this story because of this--after all, it's NOT based on a Conan Doyle story and the last such film I saw (THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES) was terrible in places because it took too many liberties with the character (especially at the end of the film). However, despite my reservations I saw the film and am glad I did.At first it did bother me, as the film did SEEM to contradict many of the Holmes stories. However, through the course of the film, they were able to explain away all these differences very well--in particular, Holmes' hatred for Professor Moriarty. Additionally, having the fictional character be psychoanalyzed actually was pretty cool--though Freud's analysis almost always took months or years, not a few quick sessions.Up until the last 10 or 15 minutes of the film, I was very pleased with the movie but then the film had a serious flaw that knocked off a point. The sword fighting scene at the end (interesting, by the way, in a Freudian sense) was totally unnecessary and totally distracting. It was like another writer took an intelligent script and added a macho idiot fight scene for no discernible reason. Had it been me, I would have had Holmes simply shoot the guy--not pad it out for no apparent reason. Additionally, while it was integrated into the story later, the whole tennis match sequence seemed contrived and silly. Still, with so much to like, both these scenes can be overlooked.An excellent film for Holmes lovers. Additionally, psychology teachers and therapists will also appreciate the inclusion of Freud.By the way, Charles Gray plays Holmes' brother, Mycroft in this film. A decade later, he played this same character in the Jeremy Brett series as well.