Director: Kyle Balda
Writers: Craig Mazin, Leonie Swann
Stars: Hugh Jackman, Brett Goldstein, Patrick Stewart
Synopsis: Every night a shepherd reads aloud a murder mystery, pretending his sheep can understand. When he is found dead, the sheep realize at once that it was a murder and think they know everything about how to go about solving it.
The Sheep Detectives is the kind of high-concept family entertainment critics and audiences have been clamoring for, though it remains surprisingly difficult to find. The movie has undeniable charm, natural heart, and a deep bench of live-action stars and voice actors who elevate the wonderfully bizarre premise. Yet, when you strip all of that away, you are left with a film that is predictable, harmless, risk-averse, and too formulaic for its own good.
The story follows a curmudgeonly shepherd, George Hardy (Hugh Jackman), who reads a mystery novel to his flock of sheep every night. Beloved by his herd, the real leader of the group is Lily (11-time Emmy winner Julia Louis-Dreyfus), who manages to solve every mystery George reads to them, as he has a penchant for leaving the final chapter until the next morning.
This leaves Hardy’s flock often “baa-fuddled,” which includes sheep, rams, and adorable baby lambs, including one of the winter “variety” many turn their backs on. Lily’s friends include Moppie (Chris O’Dowd), a Merino sheep with the ability to never forget, and Sir Ritchfield (Patrick Stewart), the regal Boreray and elder statesman of the group.
However, Hardy ends up dead, leaving Lily and the gang in a “ewe-nique” state of confusion. That’s because no one dies, they simply turn into clouds. However, instead of making themselves forget the bad things, which is one of the film’s central themes, including George’s death, they skip the “lamb-nesia” and press on, intent on solving the case.
There are many suspects in town, including a Reverend (Kobna Holdbrook-Smith) who is hiding a secret. There’s also local innkeeper, Beth (Hong Chau), who was in love with George. You have a wicked butcher, aptly named Ham (Conleth Hill), who wants to buy Hardy’s meaty flock. Finally, there is a rival shepherd, Caleb (Tosin Cole), who wants to assimilate the herd into his own.
Directed by Kyle Balda, this is his first live-action film after decades of working with Pixar and Illumination. Working from a script by Craig Mazin and adapted from the novel “Three Bags Full” by Leonie Swann, the movie is adorable and heartwarming, if occasionally manipulative.
The real sticking point is that the film is not nearly as funny as it could have been, nor as smart as some have proclaimed. Yes, this is Babe meets Knives Out, but the movie plays things far too safely as a family-friendly whodunit. As a result, the mystery and comedy feel heavily sanitized, with love interests and conflicts simplified, and resolutions often come with a single speech.
The thing is, family film storytelling doesn’t have to feel unearned, which describes most of The Sheep Detectives. The film seems fine with grazing in the meadow of lazy narratives. Which is a shame, because the duo of Nicholas Braun’s endearing doofusness as a local cop and the arrogance of Nicholas Galitzine’s ambitious reporter, investigating the murder, was entertaining.
That should have been the live-action focus. Unfortunately, much of the film steps into the clichéd convention of a forced romance involving Molly Gordon’s Rebecca. Whether you want to argue it exists to distract audiences from the real villain, the reveal is thinly veiled, weak, and not at all believable. Ultimately, the storyline feels like unnecessary narrative wool-gathering.
The supporting cast nearly saves the film. Bryan Cranston voices the stoic Sebastian, a ram living a life of quiet solitude, bringing gravitas, if not a predictable story arc. However, most of the comic relief comes from Brett Goldstein, voicing Reggie and Ronnie, who play ram versions of the Hanson brothers. I will mention that Emma Thompson is criminally underused here.
In the end, The Sheep Detectives is safe family entertainment, with a script that features layered themes of grief, acceptance, and identity subtly woven throughout the film. However, at the screening I attended, most of the children seemed bored silly, and parents rarely laughed except at Brett Goldstein’s voice work.
For a movie with aspirations of being a feel-good family crowd-pleaser, the film is remarkably steadfast in rarely rising above the flock and seldom straying from the pasture of safe family entertainment.
You can watch The Sheep Detectives exclusively in theaters starting May 8th!
