This si a great story idea speculating on the assumption that the real genius of the famous Conan Doyle detective duo is Dr Watson, the academic. The acclaimed Sherlock Holmes is just a publicity front, played by a hack actor, while Watson does the real sleuthing.
It an interesting idea and Ben Kingsley and Michael Caine make it work exceptionally well. This is one of those films where the comedy works best if it's played totally deadpan seriously (which is the case with most comedy in fact). If you run along with this idea, it runs as a very intriguing and wonderfully fun story, almost on par with any other classic Holmes film.
