I love cozy mysteries, and Prime has a cool mystery film for you to enjoy.
The Sheep Detectives
I love sheep, and I love cozy mysteries, and Kyle Balda has directed a damn good mystery, The Sheep Detectives, starring Hugh Jackman, Nicholas Braun, Nicholas Galitzine, Molly Gordon, Hong Chau and Emma Thompson. The film is based on a novel, Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann.
The plot is easy. George Hardy (Hugh Jackman) lives simply and enjoys reading murder mysteries every night to his flock of sheep. When George is found murdered outside of his trailer, the flock decide to help the clueless police officer, Tim Derry (Nicholas Braun), solve the case. Yes…I know…this plot sounds really stupid, but surprisingly…this film is actually a great mystery. There are the usual surprises, like the town learning that George had children, and in fact, George had been recently visited by his daughter Rebecca (Molly Gordon), who, along with her twin brother, had been given away for adoption when their mother died in childbirth.
The mystery grows when we learn that George, who was living a rather modest lifestyle, was also a millionaire when George’s lawyer (Emma Thompson) reads the will. Officer Derry is helped by a visiting reporter (Nicholas Galitzine) to gather the facts and hopefully solve the murder before something very bad happens to George’s estate.
Conclusion
I highly recommend that you watch this little gem of a film. I would have missed it completely if my daughter hadn’t put it on while we had breakfast. The people involved in the making of The Sheep Detectives – producers, director, cast- understood the mechanics of a good mystery story, and luckily for us, we were given the unexpected surprise ending that would have made Agatha Christie proud.
We often think of animals as stupid, especially sheep, but if you do your research, you will learn that they are quite smart. They won’t solve a murder mystery, but they will survive better than we will when this civilization goes belly up.
