REVIEW: ‘The Sheep Detectives’ Is Worth Flocking To Theaters

The Sheep Detectives is completely charming. The British murder mystery, starring Hugh Jackman and his flock of sheep, is a silly caper, a touching family drama, and a sincere parable about mortality and accepting death, all wrapped in a fluffy, family-friendly package. With more dangling themes than it has murder suspects, it’s impressive that The Sheep Detectives pulls all of its messages together into a lovely, heartfelt package.

Directed by Kyle Balda and written by Craig Mazin, the film opens with George Hardy (Hugh Jackman) writing a letter about his beloved sheep. He names each one, assumes their personalities, and reads them mystery novels, out loud, every night. While he knows the sheep can’t understand him, he finds great comfort in this solitary routine amid a slew of small-town squables and rivalry. The town’s other herder, Caleb Merrow (Tosin Cole), leases George’s land; however, George has canceled the lease on account of mistrusting Caleb.

The Sheep Detective is doing a lot, but it’s all worth it.

While George’s sheep may not speak back to him, they most certainly speak to one another, and the audience can hear them loud and clear. Lily (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), George’s most favored sheep, is the real star of The Sheep Detectives. She’s the smartest and most thoughtful member of the flock: a star-studded flock that includes the voice talent of Brett Goldstein, Patrick Stewart, Regina Hall, Bella Ramsey, and Rhys Darby in smaller supporting or comedic roles.

As if talking sheep weren’t enough, The Sheep Detective adds one more wrinkle to its lore: when sheep endure something difficult, they can choose to completely forget about it forever. Sometimes, the flock employs this for small inconveniences. But when a murder happens on their farm, they have to confront the consequences of what it means to remember the people (or sheep) who have died, even though their absence might be painful.

It’s a strong message that is well woven throughout the film in repeatedly unexpected ways. Especially for a movie rated PG, it’s impressive how willing the movie is to show death directly on-screen and to force the characters, and by extension, the audience, to grapple with how it feels. Mourning doesn’t feel good, but The Sheep Detectives is also about learning how to live with that hurt.

The Sheep Detectives deals with a lot of serious subjects, but it also deals humor in spades.

There is one sheep, Mopple (Chris O’Dowd), who doesn’t have the ability to forget things the rest of the sheep have. He and Lily are egged on by the flock’s mysterious loaner, Sebastian (Bryan Cranston), to leave their farm, go into town, and solve the murder mystery for themselves.

The sheep specifically identify that they must investigate the death for the sake of justice, because if they don’t, the local police, Officer Tim Derry (Nicholas Braun), won’t have the skill to solve it himself, and the wrong person may be punished for a crime they didn’t commit.

Yes, The Sheep Detectives deals with a lot of serious subjects. Death and justice are at the core, but so are belonging, self-worth, and self-righteousness, as Lily copes with not having all the answers to everything all the time, and Time copes with his lack of much skill. But the movie also deals humor in spades. It is, after all, a movie about sheep wandering around a human world trying to solve a crime.

The large supporting cast have nice, quirky personalities.

Beyond just plays on words, there’s a lot of physical and situational humor born from sheep being in places they simply shouldn’t be, or from doing somewhat anthropomorphic things to help feed Tim the answers to the murder mystery. And on the human side, there’s plenty of character to go around, too.

There’s Ham (Conleth Hill), the butcher, Beth, the inn-keeper (Hong Chau), Reverend Hillcoate (Kobna Holdbrook-Smith), Elliot (Nicholas Galitzine), a reporter from the city looking to break a big story, Lydia Harbottle (Emma Thompson), George’s lawyer, and Rebecca (Molly Gordon), George’s long-lost daughter. 

They all have quirky personalities and at least one good scene each to turn up the humor. Each also stands to gain from the murder at foot, and to Lily and Tim alike, each is considered a prime suspect. It’s a great deal of fun watching the sheep interact with the humans as they try digging up evidence of foul play.

The Sheep Detectives never strays from its core messages about loss and memory.

The sheep also look pretty good doing it, considering they are fully CGI constructs. The blending between real backgrounds and the digital ovine never feels murky. The real small-town sets and natural backgrounds only add to the movie’s delight.

The movie is doing quite a lot. Sometimes Tim’s incompetence is dialed up a smidge too high. And if you’re not already a fan of Molly Gordon’s exhausted theater kid energy, you may find her a tad too low-key to keep up with the zaniness around her. But at the same time, The Sheep Detectives is meant to be a mellow mystery, so her billowy performance may just as well be exactly what the movie needed to stay grounded.

The Sheep Detectives never strays from its core messages about loss and memory, even as it tramples through a dozen other plot threads and heartfelt messages fit for any age. With a novel and endearing concept and CGI blending that meets the moment, The Sheep Detectives is well worth flocking to theaters to see.

The Sheep Detectives is now playing in theaters everywhere.