I am reserving the top spot for “Avengers: Doomsday,” BUT I think “The Sheep Detectives” might be the one of the best movies I have seen this year. I saw this movie on accident. I came to visit my best friends and they were taking their kids to go see it. I remember seeing a poster or trailer for this movie, but could have sworn it had came out like last year. Imagine my surprise when they told me it was a recent release.
“The Sheep Detectives” is a story about George Hardy (played by Hugh Jackman), a shepherd who lives alone outside of Denbrook with only his sheep to keep him company, and boy does he love his flock. Each one has a name based on their personality and it’s to be believed that he will protect these sheep with his life, if need be. Suddenly, the sheep wake up one day to find him murdered. Luckily, George spent sundown reading murder mysteries to the flock so Lily, Mopple, and Sebastian set out to solve his murder.
I know what you’re thinking. Is this a movie where the sheep can talk to the humans? No, no it is not, but they find clever ways to get the sheep to interact with the humans. George seemed to almost speak sheep so he didn’t need nudging. Officer Derry was a different story.
The film is almost two hours but it doesn’t feel that way at all. You get a really good look at the sheep, the people in the town, and you get to start to make your own decision about who may have committed the murder. You would think that since it’s a movie with sheep created using visual effects that it would be a bit underwhelming for adults. I can assure you that there were so many times where I laughed out loud. I probably laughed more than the kids (who guessed the murderer wrong like I did.) I was pleasantly surprised by the cast. The budget for this movie was $75 million dollars and with names like Regina Hall, Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Bella Ramsey, and Julia Louis-Drefus, I wonder how much of that was on salary. I know the other half was spent on visual effects and they were done WELL! There are some movies that use visual effects nowadays and it just looks off. I can tell work was put in to make sure this looks as real and believable as possible. I appreciated never being taken out of the fantasy.
There are a lot of great lessons about being ok with being wrong, stepping out of your comfort zone (literally as the sheep had to do that in order for them to be able to go into town with Sebastian), and paying attention to the small things, just to name a few. And these aren’t just lessons for the kids. As adults, we need these reminders, too! Pay attention to those things when you go see this movie because you should!
Now, onto the ending….I won’t spoil it but I can say my best friend is a professional in that industry (not murder) and that is not how that works. When you see the movie, you will understand what I mean. Also, the ending reminded me of why I was frustrated with The Residence. There are not good clues along the way that would lead you to the murderer and I don’t like that. There always needs to be solid clues that I can see throughout the film that would lead me to the conclusion you’re presenting me at the end of the film. This, like “The Residence,” did the same thing and that made me dock points from the movie. It was doing so well until we go there.
All in all, I would definitely give this a watch. Do you need to see it in theaters? No. You can wait until it streams, but when it does, make sure you sit down with some home popcorn and the kids to watch!
