(courtesy IMP Awards)
No doubt the first response of many people upon seeing the whimsically touching trailer for The Sheep Detectives is that looks like precisely the sort of family film that it would’ve been fun to take the kiddies to during the recent school holidays.
It looks to have it all – suitably off-the-wall but cute premise, anthropomorphic animals, dialogue full of humour and idiosyncratic intent and just enough real life emotion to add some emotional impact to proceedings and to impart a meaningfully noteworthy message.
And while in a sense all of those elements are very much present and accounted for (and who doesn’t love a well executed movie with all of the above?), what sets The Sheep Detectives apart and makes it one of the best films you will see this year is that it takes all of the obviously family film-ish parts and absolutely runs with it, all the way across the road (with an actual chicken, no less!), lots of paddocks and into the quintessentially rustic English village which sits at the heart of more murder mysteries than you can name.
This is Agatha Christie if the animals took over and left Poirot and Miss Marple back at the station, and it surges with a whimsically spirit vivaciousness underpinned by emotions so real I dare you not to weep in certain pivotal and heartstoppingly arresting scenes.
At the centre of a story which has all the idiosyncrasies a murder-solving, animal-loving, quirkily thoughtful viewer could want, sit a flock of sheep, unofficially led by mother figure Shetland Sheep Lily (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), who is universally agreed to be the smartest sheep in the paddock, who have been trained, whether they realise it or not, to investigate murders and to spot real clues, red herrings, and the involvement of a possibly guilty maid from a mile off (or two miles as the case may be, and yes, that does mean something surprisingly profound in the context of this wondrously affecting, charmingly funny film).
Their teacher in this unconventional bit of accident ovine education is ruggedly handsome shepherd, George Hardy, who seated on the small wooden ledge of his retro silver caravan, reads murder mysteries and whodunnits aloud to his beloved flock right before the sun sets.
Whether they know it or not, they take all the murder solving tips, tricks and truisms in, and while some of the flock like air-headed North Country Cheviot sheep Cloud (Regina Hall) and Sir Richfield (Patrick Stewart), a Boreray ram don’t really take what they’ve learned and run with them, sheep like Lily, Merino sheep and all round goofy sweetheart Mopple (Chris O’Dowd), lone ram Sebatian (Sebastian), an Icelandic Leadersheep, and even the ostracised Winter Lamb (Tommy Birchall) do and they become central to finding out what happened to George when he is found dead by some members of the flock outside his caravan one terrible morning.
While your first assumption might be that is all unbearably cute and twee as a set-up, The Sheep Detectives asks you to almost immediately reconsider because it is at this point that the film does the first of many things that will absolutely tear your heart still beating out of your chest and summon all the empathy of a thousand lifetimes as Lily, George’s favourite, gently lays her head down in his outstretched palm and quietly and movingly grieves.
It is one of the most beautiful moments in a film surprisingly full of them, and I only say “surprisingly” because again the trailer, which is a delight in and of itself, would suggest a for jocular, rompish type of story, full of whimsy, silliness and talking sheep (well, to each other anyway; to use, they sound, very baa-baa-lamb) and not a vividly arresting exploration of searing grief and loss in the guise of a thoroughly enjoyable classic murder mystery.
Thanks to the clearly superb talents of writer Craig Mazin, who has based his wholly emotionally resonant story on the novel Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann, and the empathetically intuitive directing touch of Kyle Balda, The Sheep Detectives, is one of the most touching depictions of grief I’ve seen since WandaVision mused with all the heartbreaking warmth of a loss too terrible to grapple with that “What is grief, if not love persevering?”
You feel the full force of how terrible it is to love someone you love in every scene of The Sheep Detectives, but rather magically too, and it does feel like a work of masterful emotional alchemy, you are led on the merriest of goofiest murder solving jaunts as Lily principally, but also Mopple, Sebastian and the Winter Lamb help Tim Derry (Nicholas Braun), the initially clueless policeman in the small village of Denbrook to figure out who killed their much-loved and desperately missed shepherd.
There’s a veritable feast of suspects, the exact identities of which should be left to watching The Sheep Detectives so no spoilers inadvertently colour your entry into this richly engaging, moving and very funny story, and if not for the efforts of George’s sheep, especially the unstoppable Lily (who is, rather groundedly, not without her doubts, like any newly grief-stricken soul would be), Tim may still be stumbling around the village, though in fairness he does prove to be a comedically engaging quick study.
All of the crime solving tropes and cliches are presented and accounted for, including a village square reveal of the real killer, and if you love watching all the clues get assembled in a justice serving pattern you will love every part of that scene and its sheep-led lead-up, you are going to love how Lily and the others solve the crime with tenacity, insight and beloved thoughtfulness.
But even more than that, you will marvel at how the The Sheep Detectives combines all of that comedic sleuthing, with sheep no less, far smarter and more committed than the humans, with transcendentally beautiful and incisively honest ruminations on grief, loss, inclusion, community and trauma, and how being loved, and unconditionally so, gives life, and yes, sadly, even death, all of its colour, purpose and truth, something that holds true whether you’re a person, and rather winningly, and more importantly in the case of this wholly lovely film, sheep.
Go behind the scenes …