★★★½ (3½ out of 4)
Not for me. That was my first reaction to hearing about “The Sheep Detectives,” the new family comedy starring Hugh Jackman as a shepherd who reads mystery novels to a cute flock of talking digital sheep who fancy themselves super sleuths. Then I actually saw the movie and all my muttering about twee twaddle vanished in the face of a world-class charmer of a movie that wore down my resistance. Expecting to gag on curdled whimsy, I left thinking, hey, it’s not baaad at all. Stop me before I pun again.
Based on Leonie Swann’s 2005 novel “Three Bags Full,” this little gem is directed by Kyle Balda from a deceptively clever script by Craig Mazin, known for his Emmy-winning 2019 script for HBO’s “Chernobyl,” an atomic disaster series as far from escapism as nuclear Armageddon. “The Sheep Detectives” is all the better for being so pleasantly unexpected. You’d have to go back to 1995’s “Babe” to find a fit comparison, and that oinker went home with seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.
Jackman, miles from Wolverine and the Avengers universe, excels as George Hardy, a widower living in a dodgy trailer in the remarkably uncloudy English countryside who finds solace in his sheep. He writes flirty letters to neighbor Rebecca (Molly Gordon) and wrangles a bit with rival shepherd Caleb (Tosin Cole), a butcher named Ham (Conleth Hill), nasty innkeeper Beth (Hong Chau), local reporter Elliot (Nicholas Galitzine) and the not always helpful Reverend Hillcoate (Kobna Holdbrook-Smith). Typical country life.
George finds his real joy tending his flock. At dusk, he reads to them from his seemingly inexhaustible library of whodunits. The sheep bleat to each about the mysteries, but never to George. Animals are private that way around humans. High marks to AI (I can’t believe I just wrote that) and Framestore’s creature effects for the way sheep lips move so beautifully in sync with the Mazin’s crisp dialogue.
Even higher marks to the voice work from the A-list actors who provide distinct personalities to the otherwise interchangeable bags of wool they’re portraying. Julia Louis-Dreyfus is a smartass verbal wonder as Lily, a Shetland ewe who’s the brains of the herd. Bryan Cranston gets right to the core of Sebastian the loner. And Chris O’Dowd earns extra points as Mopple, the flock historian. I could go on about Bella Ramsey as bratty Zora, Patrick Stewart as haughty Sir Ritchfield, Regina Hall as the diva-ish Cloud and Brett Goldstein doing double growl duty as twin rams Ronnie and Reggie.
But there’s a real murder to deal with when beloved George turns up dead. Don’t scream spoiler—it happens right up front and Jackman’s star presence makes it resonate. The murder brings loss and grief into this storybook fable and does it with such delicacy and feeling that parents can guide their kids through these themes without inflicting trauma.
It has the makings of the summer’s sweetest surprise. Spread the word.
Even the human characters get their licks in. Nicholas Braun, sporting a spot-on Brit accent, bumbles uproariously as the town’s clueless Clouseau and Emma Thompson is sensationally sarcastic as Lydia, George’s lawyer who informs one and all that the shepherd left $30 million in a will that has been recently altered. By whom? I’ll never tell.
What I will say is that the sheep, despite their tendency to doze, woolgather and wander off, prove to be seasoned Sherlocks—I wanted to say Shearlocks—when it comes to bringing George’s murderer to justice. There’s great teasing fun to be had in matching wits with rams and lambs, but the secret sauce in “The Sheep Detectives” is the emotional throughline that holds us close to these characters. Hilarious and heartfelt, “The Sheep Detectives” has the makings of the summer’s sweetest surprise. Spread the word.