Widely feted as being for all ages. Directed by Kyle Balda (who previously directed mostly an endless stream of Minions flicks) from a script Craig Mazin (Chernobyl (2019)) derived from Leonie Swann's novel Three Bags Full (2005). (Goodreads was unimpressed with the source material and a cursory scan suggests this movie is quite different.)
It's a murder mystery with sheep doing the detective work. Their shepherd is Hugh Jackman. They can flush their memories of unpleasantness (just like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)) except for Mopple, the wisest, voiced with overt ruefulness by Irishman Chris O'Dowd. Patrick Stewart at his fruitiest voiced some sort of well-meaning but air-headed patriarch; less sweary but very similar to the pig's head in Bait (2026). Julia Louis-Dreyfus does the smartest sheep who solves all the murder-mysteries that Jackman reads to his sheep nightly. Brian Cranston's explanation of what a church is is blunt! Emma Thompson is very effective as a snappy lawyer. It's difficult to square Nicholas Galitzine here with his role in Masters of the Universe (2026); perhaps Sharlto Copley was unavailable. Nicholas Braun did well as The Bill.
Things started very amusingly but the humour flagged as the themes got heavy. I wanted more sight gags from the sheep! And more character development of the humans, though that might have robbed the movie of the jape that they are an undifferentiated mob. (Hong Chau's is effective but comes so late that it's irrelevant.) Everything is introduced with intent, which is tedious. Some plot points dangle: what happened to the millions? There's a scene where a depleted Wolverine takes on He-Man (complete with cheap yellow hair dye!). The whole thing put me in mind of Wallace and Gromit, specifically A Close Shave (1995).
Nell Minow at Roger Ebert's venue: four stars. Dana Stevens. Not a great mystery but that's OK because it's about the sheep coming to understand death etc.
