Basil Rathbone. Peter Cushing. Tom Baker. Jonny Lee Miller. Benedict Cumberbatch. All of these plus more have played the great Sherlock Holmes. (That’s right, a 1982 production of Hound of the Baskervilles had Tom Baker as the Great Detective. If anybody can find proof of this, I so want to see it.)

And now Ian McKellen has taken on the role in the recent film Mr. Holmes (2015). In the movie it has been 30 years since Dr. Watson has married and moved out of their Baker Street flat and Sherlock is living near the sea with his housekeeper (Laura Linney) and her son Roger (Milo Parker) who is a huge fan of Sherlock and his adventures. Aging more than he ever expected would happen, Sherlock’s main goal now is to remember his final case before he retired and write the truth of what happened, instead of the fictional account written by Watson.

There’s only one issue — his dementia keeps getting worse and facts keep slipping away.

Thanks to Roger, who can’t wait to read more of his adventures, as well as learn more of his idol’s hobbies, including beekeeping, Sherlock has a reason to keep remembering and stay healthy.

While this is a Sherlock Holmes movie, Mr. Holmes is a tale of getting old and surviving in a world of the young, trying to stay significant when you were once famous. Ian McKellen does a fabulous job playing the character, as does the makeup team making him look decades older than both McKellen and Holmes.

Roger, a rather mouthy child, also makes the story enjoyable for anybody who may not care about tales of growing old. His ambition to learn from Holmes teaches his idol more than any younger portrayal of the character has ever learned.

This story does have its flaws, not the least of which is that a man with his addictions would never live until his 70s. Despite this, the film is brilliant and a must-watch for anybody seeking a new look at Sherlock.