Sometimes in describing a movie, it helps to compare it to another movie but add a twist to the premise.
It’s like Star Wars but if Darth Vader was the abusive music instructor from Whiplash.
It’s like Steel Magnolias but the beauty shop is on the submarine from The Hunt For Red October.
It’s like Titanic but the cruise ship is the tech company from Office Space.
OK, none of those movie match ups exist but shouldn’t they?
Today’s post is about a movie match up that does exist.
It’s like Knives Out but with the animals from Babe and Benoit Blanc is a sheep.
It’s…Movie Time!
Today’s post is about a movie that came out in May of this year, The Sheep Detectives.
A herd of sheep must band together to solve a case of... MURDER!
Here’s the set up: George Hardy is a bit of a loner, a misanthrope to the people of the small English community of Denbrook.
But George is a kindly soul to the sheep that are in his care. Living in a caravan trailer, he tends to all their needs for food and medicine. He has a name for each of the sheep.
And he reads to them. He likes to read murder mysteries to them.
Lilly, the sheep others in the flock regard as the smartest sheep in the world, follows along and is usually very good at solving who the murderer is before George gets to the end.
Another of the sheep, Cloud, always has the same guess: "I think the maid did it!" (Even if the story doesn't have a maid!)
The sheep live a life of blissful ignorance. Death is just something that happens in the stories George tells.
Sheep believe that they themselvs do not die, they become the clouds in the sky.
And they cling to this idyllic perspective with an uncanny ability to will themselves to forget anything unpleasant.
Except for Mopple, the one sheep who remembers everything.
The idyllic existence of shepherd and sheep takes a tragic turn when George is murdered.
Cloud: "I think the maid did it!"
There is no maid but there is no dearth of suspects in Denbrook.
- George's solicitor Lydia Harbottle
- Reverend Hillcoate
- butcher Ham Gilyard
- innkeeper Beth Pennock
- neighbouring shepherd Caleb Merrow
- Rebecca Hampstead, George's long lost daughter
He also had a son, Peter Van Vuuren, who is in South Africa.
Tim Derry, the town's only police officer, would rather make things easy for himself and assume poor George died of natural causes. But visiting reporter Elliot Matthews guides the reluctant officer to re-visit George's caravan and consider the clues that indicate George's death was murder.
The trail of clues leads Tim to Rebecca Hampstead!
No! It can't be! She seems like a nice girl. But there's a lot of circumstantial evidence that points to Rebecca to having the mean, the opportunity and motive to kill her long absent father.
Cloud: "I think the maid did it!"
The case seems like a lock but Lilly ain't buying it.
She's heard enough to George's murder mysteries and solved them to know something isn't making sense.
But how can Lilly, a mere sheep, find the clues and communicate that to Tim to exonerate Rebecca and find the real killer?
What follows is an intricate puzzle as Lilly explores and watches to piece together the real story of what happened to George.
Lilly is forced to confront a lot of harsh truths. Such as death is real.
Lilly realizes she must have witnessed many sheep die and she willed herself to forget them all and believe in the myth they become clouds.
Lilly is heartbroken to realize that Mopple does remember every one of them and cannot forget.
I think Julia Louis-Dreyfus does an extraordinary job as the voice of Lilly, creating a character of warmth and innocence, one also fractured with fear as Lilly is forced to do things she has never done before.
Such as leave the pasture.
And cross a road.
Why did the chicken cross the road?
To show a sheep how it's done!
The sheep also contemplate the existence of God.
OK, let's be real, it's no weirder than what kids learn in Sunday School.
Cloud: "I think the maid did it!"
The Sheep Detectives is a very funny movie but it's also filled with deep moments of loss and longing.
The "It's That Person Who Was NOT In That Thing" Department
The part of Rebecca Hampstead was played by Molly Gordon. Andrea kept insisting she looked familiar.
Andrea: "I've seen Molly Gordon in something, I'm sure of it!"
A quicky review of Molly's Wikipedia page and her IMDB page of every recorded TV show and movie she's ever been in found NO show or movie either of us has seen that features Molly Gordon.
The "It's That Person Who WAS In That Thing" Department
The part of Caleb Merrow was played by Tosin Cole who was Ryan SInclair on Doctor Who.
The Sheep Detectives is a unique film even as it's influences from other movies are clearly felt. The talking animals evokes Babe and the murder mystery at the center of things is worthy of RIan Johnson's Knives Out films. But the amalgamation of these influences molds The Sheep Detectives into it's own delightful and profound thing.
Andrea and I enjoyed The Sheep Detectives quite a lot.
And that is that for this week's movie post.
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Cloud: "I still think the maid did it!"
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Andrea: "I've seen Molly Gordon in something, I'm sure of it!"
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