Review: The Sheep Detectives

I still maintain that Marketing missed a trick by having "A Herder Mystery" literally no where in the advertising. The pun writes itself!

The above is literally my only complaint with this movie.

As an author, story beats can become easy to predict, because that's how stories work. Unlike reality, Fiction has to make sense, so there's a limited number of ways a story can go, and once you've figured out the formula, you can see how the threads weave together.

Watching The Sheep Detectives, I knew that the obvious suspect was a red herring, but the true culprit genuinely threw me for a loop. Even my main suspect was way off the mark. That doesn't happen often, so I'm extra thrilled when it does.

It's hard to pin down exactly what genre this is. It's a Herder Murder Mystery, with plenty of cheeky nods and winks to things like The Murdoch Mysteries and Father Brown; 'murder of the week' shows set in rural English villages, and to detective novels, both classical and modern.

It's also a found-family comedy, interspaced with enough tragic and serious moments that the humour feels earned, rather than shallow. Because family can be messy, and complicated, and frustrating, but it's family, and that matters.

It's a comedy of errors, and a sharp side-eye at ethical farming practices and how the individual interprets that. It's a love letter to agriculture, and a harsh glare at the same.

It's a study of humanity, and spirituality, and the nostalgia of remembering loved ones who have passed. It's an examination of grief and healing, and the growth that comes after. It holds up a microscope to bias and prejudice, while including a reminder that we're all just people, and people can be flawed, and wrong, without being evil.

It's a beautiful movie that hits all the right beats without being predictable, and was obviously made by people who cared about doing it right.

Warning: Spoilers below

No, really. Lots of Spoilers.

All right, you've been warned...

The story begins with a Shepard named George, played by Hugh Jackman, a wool sheep farmer who reads detective novels to his flock every night, his daily routine narrated through a letter to a "Rebecca".

(Side note: I really do love Jackman in roles where he gets to play a diamond-in-the-rough with a badly-hidden soft spot.)

When he is found dead one morning, his flock, devestated and keenly aware of how useless the town's one police officer is going to be without outside assistance, decide that they will solve the mystery themselves.

"Rebecca", at first presumed to be a long-distance lover or estranged spouse, turns out to be his long-lost daughter, who arrives for a visit the day George is discovered dead and quickly becomes the main suspect.

Also on the suspect list are the town Priest, a rival Sheperd, the local Butcher, the Innkeeper and a lawyer who serves as the main exposition. Strictly speaking, Rebecca's equally long-lost twin brother from South Africa is also on the suspect list, but quickly dismissed because he's dialling into the will reading from South Africa.

Each is revealed to be suspect in some way.

• Rebecca had visited George the night he was murdered, and was the main beneficiary of his will.
• The rival Sheperd had a violent quarrel with George the night before, and we soon find out why.
• The Innkeeper stole a letter and then had an out-of-context rage moment.
• The lawyer knows a suspicious amount of things that no one else does, and is aggressively uninterested in who killed her client.
• The Butcher was counting his potential influx of lamb and mutton while George's trailer is still an active crime scene,
• The policeman loudly declared that he wished he had a murder a day.

In the fine tradition of Murder Mysteries, I won't spoil who the killer is, and will end by encouraging everyone to go and watch this movie as soon as it comes out. This masterpiece deserves to be seen and appreciated.

Let the movie industry know that there is still a market for well-made genre films, not just nostalgic cash grabs and AI slop.

You can find my other reviews at the link above, and all my original fiction and published works at the link below.

https://www.amazon.com.au/stores/Natasja-Rose/author/B011VJ4QJO