Warning! There may be spoilers in this. If you plan to see the movie you may want to skip this one.
Sorry about the radio silence yesterday, my Hordeling. We were watching the movie in the subject line. By the time we were done it was late and I just didn’t have anything interesting to write about before I was falling asleep.
So, The Sheep Detectives. The wife and I watched it last night. It’s a fun litle film with a great cast – Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Julia Louise-Dreyfus, Regina Hall, Bryan Cranston, and Nicholas Galitzine. Interestingly, Nicholas Galitzine did a fine job in this (and many other movies), but will probably be most remembered for playing He-Man in The Masters of the Universe movie released earlier this year.
On the surface, it’s a fun idea. A shepherd (played by Hugh Jackman) reads mysteries to his flock every evening. He has named all of his sheep, and treats them almost like his children. He is dedicated and takes care of them. Inevitably, the shepherd dies. His sheep are quite distraught by this, once they realize what has happened. Lily, the smartest sheep in the bunch, usually has figured out the end of the mysteries before the shepherd finished them, so obviously she can figure out what happened to their shepherd.
The rest of the movie is the sheep trying to figure out what happened, running through the list of suspects and red herrings, and helping out the initially clueless local police officer to solve the case. It’s funny and the trip to the big revelation of who did the deed is satisfactory.
There is also a deeper undercurrent to this story.
The sheep don’t understand death. To them it is only something that happens in the mysteries that are read to them. They believe that they will turn into fluffy clouds when they leave this world. They also have the ability to forget any unpleasant things that will cause them distress. Thus they maintain their happy environment, free from the cares of the world.
There are darksides to their world though. One of the sheep, Mopple, doesn’t forget and understands what death is. He knows what happens to sheep when they go away. He has to carry that burden alone. There is also Sebastien, a ‘winter sheep’ born during the winter months. In sheep society this makes you a second-class citizen, unworthy of being in the flock. He is always aloof, staying away from the flock. His backstory gives him plenty of reason why. There is a newborn winter sheep in the flock and it looks like he will suffer the same fate as Sebastien, being an outcast in what should be a protective environment.
I won’t give away everything. This is a movie that seems like a fun little escapist tale on the surface but there is much more to it if you stop to think about it. And you will.
I highly recommend seeing it, my Hordeling. You’re welcome.
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