Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
The Sheep Detectives is on Prime Video.
Shepherd George Hardy loves reading murder mysteries aloud to his sheep every night. Just a sweet little daily ritual. What he doesn’t realize, however, is that the sheep understand the stories. So, when George is found murdered on his farm, his flock decide to play sheep detectives and find out who killed their beloved shepherd.
Directed by Kyle Balda, ‘The Sheep Detectives’ is based on Leonie Swann’s novel Three Bags Full. Set in a pretty little English village, the story begins when shepherd George Hardy (Hugh Jackman) is found murdered, sending shockwaves through the community. With only one bumbling police officer called Tim Derry (Nicholas Braun) on the case, George’s cleverest sheep, Lily (voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus), takes it upon herself to solve the mystery, assisted by her friend Mopple (Chris O’Dowd), the only sheep who never forgets anything.
One of the film’s loveliest ideas is that the sheep can deliberately forget anything they wish on the count of three. It’s a form of voluntary amnesia, allowing them to erase painful, traumatic, or uncomfortable memories. When Lily discovers George’s body, her first instinct is to make everyone forget that too. But Sebastian (voiced by Bryan Cranston), a lone-wolf ram, challenges the flock, arguing that erasing George’s final moments would also mean erasing part of the man who cared for them for so many years. It’s Sebastian who teacher the sheep that painful memories are sometimes worth holding on to, although he doesn’t think Lily is smart enough to solve a real murder mystery.
Director Kyle Balda and his team use a combination of puppetry and visual effects to bring the sheep detectives to life. Even though it’s obvious they aren’t real animals, they’re absolutely endearing, especially a bunch of younger playful lambs. Much of the fun comes from watching Lilly and Mopple hilariously nudge the hopelessly clueless officer Tim towards the right clues. Nicholas Galitzine plays Elliot Matthews, a junior reporter eager to cover the murder, who also lends Tim a helping hand. And, like any good whodunit, there are plenty of suspects. Will the sheep detectives uncover the real culprit? In a feel-good mystery like this, you’d certainly hope so.
The suspect list includes rival shepherd Caleb Merrow (Tosin Cole), who was last seen arguing with George; George’s daughter Rebecca Hampstead, who stands to inherit his property; town butcher Ham Gilyard (Conleth Hill), who appears to have had some serious beef with the victim; local innkeeper Beth Pennock (Hong Chau), who is caught behaving suspiciously; and Reverend Hillcoate (Kobna Holdbrook-Smith), the priest to whom George had been secretly paying money. While not an obvious suspect, Emma Thompson’s brief cameo as George’s solicitor, Lydia Harbottle, also raises an eyebrow.
At just under two hours, ‘The Sheep Detectives’ fits comfortably into the growing “cozy mystery” genre, where charm, whimsy, and clever sleuthing take precedence over gore and graphic violence. Sure, it embraces many of the genre’s familiar tropes, but that’s precisely what makes the film so much fun. The sheep approach George’s murder armed with nothing more than what they’ve learned from years of listening to detective stories.
If the idea of anthropomorphic sheep wandering around an English village playing Sherlock Holmes sounds delightfully absurd, ‘The Sheep Detectives’ is an absolute treat.
Stream The Sheep Detectives on Prime Video.
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