Movie review: 'The Sheep Detectives'

I was vaguely aware, browsing bookstores and libraries, that there was an odd group of murder mysteries with cats on the cover illustration (and cat puns in the title of course), but for many years was not entirely sure that this wasn't just one prolific author writing one ongoing series to a niche but dedicated readership of cat detective fans. Despite being a fan of anthropomorphic animals in stories, and generally liking detective fiction, they just seemed a little bit too specific for even me. The only example of one of these novels I've ever read featured foxes rather than cats, and it was unfortunately terrible enough that it killed what little spark of enthusiasm for the genre I had. My lack of interest in the sub-genre seems to be mirrored by the furry fandom at large (we tend to like our cat detectives a bit more bipedal, among other traits).

Recently, this little genre has slipped off the written page and onto the big screen. The Sheep Detectives adapts one of these novels, Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann, which the observant reader may have already deduced features sheep detectives rather than cats. Directed by Kyle Balda, this movie tells the story of George Hardy, an Irish shepherd played by Hugh Jackman, who enjoys reading detective stories out loud to his flock, never believing for a second they are actually paying attention to the stories and learning sleuthing skills second hand from these readings. When George suddenly dies one night, the sheep begin to suspect foul play, and decide to solve the crime themselves.

The main sleuths are Lily (voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus), the "smartest sheep in the world" who is the best at figuring out the stories before their denouement, Mopple (voiced by Chris O'Dowd), who is unable to forget anything, and Sebastian (voiced by Bryan Cranston), a literal black sheep with a dark and troubled backstory. (Readers may be wondering how a sheep in a fairly mild family film could possibly have a dark and troubled backstory, but when he finally does reveal where he came from, it ends up that, yes, that's an appropriately ovine bad history.) They find ways to get clues to the in way over his head local police officer, Tim Derry (Nicholas Braun), who the human cast assumes is the real detective. To his credit, he both eventually figures out these sheep are helping him solve the case, but also not to tell anyone else that, because he would sound bonkers.

As detective mysteries go, this one is mostly fair. I will freely admit, I didn't solve the crime before the reveal, but I've always slightly meta-gamed these things, and not really bothered to try and solve them, knowing, unless we're dealing with a true madman, the filmmakers and/or authors will eventually reveal who did dunit anyway. The movie does use camera placement and edits to clearly telegraph "this is a clue", but it is not always helpful in explaining how it is a clue. The movie is also aware that, as this is a movie that will have viewers scanning everything for clues, it can use the background for little jokes. There's a cute bit about neon signage in the town that observant viewers might get a chuckle out of, for example.

This is a murder mystery, and the victim, George, is actually a decent, likeable person, which is usually avoided in these types of "cozy" mysteries, even those intended for adults. It is not a particularly brutal or disturbing murder, however, as this is still a basic family film. The movie does touch on darkness in the world, as George was a vegetarian shepherd, and kept the sheep only for their wool. The sheep realizing that other shepherds have other uses for sheep is a major moment. They also have the unique ability to just forget when things are bad. Lily remembers her parents, but chose to forget they died, and so believes they became fluffy clouds and left one day. Only Mopple, who is incapable of forgetting, and Sebastian, who refuses to, know the truth that sheep die, too.

I'll say the sheep did much better with this movie than the unfortunate vulpine detectives I mentioned earlier. In fact, this was a very entertaining movie. But, for a suitable summation, I decided to enlist the help of an expert on the subject of animals, and described the plot of the movie to my cat Blair, who just stared at me blankly. My brother's dog, who I have been dogsitting, barged in, however, and began explicating her theory that the detectives should have been dogs, of course, as this would have made much more sense. This caused Blair to finally break her silence.

"Holy crap, a talking dog!" was all she said.