Heartfelt, funny, and surprisingly profound, this Hugh Jackman headliner might be one of this year’s best films.
This review is light on spoilers.
When I first saw The Sheep Detectives’ trailer, I knew I had to watch it. It had everything I wanted in a whodunit: a riveting murder mystery, an intriguing cast, and a thrilling yet still cozy atmosphere. On top of these, The Sheep Detectives has one other charm, perhaps its biggest: the cutest, fluffiest titular characters.
But life happened. I got too caught up at work that I failed to catch the movie at the cinema. So when it dropped on Prime Video over the weekend, I purchased a one-month subscription right away.
And what a movie! I loved it so much I watched it again the next day. Packed with heart, humor, and an emotional depth that’s unexpected from a movie about sheep, The Sheep Detectives might be one of this year’s best films.
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The cleverest, cutest sleuths
Based on the 2005 novel Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann, The Sheep Detectives follows George (played with such endearing earnestness by Hugh Jackman), a shepherd who loves his sheep so much he gives each of them a name. He dotes on them, talks to them, and even makes them their medicine himself. Like a father would read a bedtime story to put his little one to sleep, George reads to them from sunset until the stars come out in the sky. The flock would listen in rapt attention—but their kindly shepherd has no clue of just how attentive they really are.
One morning, they discover George’s cold, lifeless body. Being murder-mystery addicts, they deduce it was not a natural death, taking it upon themselves to identify and bring to justice the one who committed the dastardly deed. Borrowing the words of Lily (voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus), “Our shepherd was murdered, and we shall solve the crime!”
Following this brave declaration, the “smartest sheep in the world,” Lily, and the wisest of them all, the gentle Mopple (voiced by Chris O’ Dowd), team up and take the lead in solving the mystery. Far from being mindless sheep, Lily and Mopple prove to be rather brilliant detectives, drawing wisdom from the countless mystery stories read to them by George.
Lily, for example, remembers that in George’s nighttime tales, “the people in the will are always the suspects.” This bit of information proves valuable in their investigation. They even find a way to get the last book George read them, the one about narrowing down a suspect, into the hands of the clueless police officer. The murder wouldn’t have been solved at all without the fluffy versions of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John H. Watson doing most of the sleuthing.
They’re the cleverest while also being the cutest sleuths!
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Impeccable casting, cozy vibe
Like proper whodunits, The Sheep Detectives has an ensemble of colorful characters, both the human and the woolly ones.
Joining Jackman are Nicholas Braun as Tim Derry, the local police officer who’s always “detecting,” Nicholas Galitzine as Elliot the reporter, Hong Chau as the innkeeper, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith as Reverend Hillcoate, Conleth Hill as the butcher Ham, Tosin Cole as Caleb the next-meadow shepherd, Molly Gordon as the mysterious woman George has been corresponding with, and the legendary Emma Thompson as George’s lawyer Lydia Harbottle.
While the human characters are charming in their own way, the voice cast is the beating heart of the movie. Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the smart and loyal Lily, Chris O’Dowd as fan-favorite Mopple, Bryan Cranston as dignified Sebastian, and Patrick Stewart as the elderly and rather pompous Sir Richfield inject the movie with emotional heft and make The Sheep Detectives so much more moving. I laughed and cried with them. I tried solving the mystery with them, never once doubting that they had the smarts to solve the death of their beloved George.
The Sheep Detectives is directed by Kyle Balda, who’s known for co-directing The Lorax (2012), with Chris Renaud; Minions (2015) and Despicable Me 3 (2017), with Pierre Coffin; and Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022), with Brad Ableson and Jonathan del Val. The script is by Craig Mazin, known best as one of the creators of the HBO series Chernobyl (2019) and The Last of Us (2023).
In visuals and vibes, The Sheep Detectives seems like a cross between the Knives Out movies, the Paddington films, and Babe (1995), all of which have a special place in my heart. The cinematography is top-notch, while the color palette makes almost every frame postcard-worthy.
It also has an ’80s and ’90s nostalgia to it, the kind of film that the whole family watched, yet Hollywood doesn’t seem to make anymore. Think E.T., Casper, Little Rascals, and Homeward Bound. Thrilling yet cozy, laugh-out-loud but also deeply moving, I think The Sheep Detectives has the makings of a classic.
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More than just a movie about sheep
From the very first frame, The Sheep Detectives made me feel a spectrum of emotions from joy to terror, despair to frustration.
As expected of a murder-mystery, The Sheep Detectives delivers on the thrills, expertly dropping clues that keep the audience hooked from start to finish. It’s like an Agatha Christie novel brought to life. It’s an engaging whodunit, sure, but what makes the movie one of this year’s best (critics agree with a whopping 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes) is its unexpected emotional complexity.
Like an unsheared sheep, The Sheep Detectives layers several themes so deftly that it doesn’t feel contrived. It even has its own myths: sheep can willfully forget painful memories , and death exists only in stories—nobody dies, we just become clouds. There was one sheep tradition that bothered me, however, the ostracizing of the poor “winter lambs.” Keep these bits in mind, as these tie directly into the film’s central themes.
I never thought a movie about sheep could make me ponder life’s biggest mysteries. Zola, the inquisitive lamb (voiced by Bella Ramsey), fires off a barrage of questions: “What’s the meaning of human life if it can all just end one day in the blink of an eye? Why are humans here at all? Who made them and who made us?” And her most compelling query: “What’s inside a tree?”
There’s Mopple, teaching us ever so gently about some of life’s harshest truths, specifically on death and memory. Mopple admits that there’s always pain in remembering a departed loved one, but he chooses to remember the good things, telling Lily that, “…it’s our memory that keeps our loved ones alive.” I was already ugly crying at this point in the movie.
Still on memory and remembering, there’s also proud Sebastian, who loves his flock so much more than he lets on. It’s the outcast Sebastian who convinces Lily and the flock should not forget George just because it’s painful. “You’ll remember him because it’s right. Because it’s just. It means the good should not be harmed by the bad. The weak should not be harmed by the strong. And a friend should never be forgotten.” Here come the tears again!
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Lastly, it teaches us to embrace the outcasts. In a world mired in racism, regionalism, and xenophobia, The Sheep Detectives offers a simple lesson: like George’s sheep, who learned to open their hearts to the tiny Winter Lamb, life can be gentler and fairer when we choose kindness.
The Sheep Detectives succeeds in being more than another fun, family movie. It speaks to each of us, teaching us, including the little ones, in the gentlest of ways, a thing or two about some of life’s mysteries, the ones even adults struggle to explain.
For a movie about sheep, it says so much about us, humans. Shear brilliance indeed!
Do yourself a favor and watch The Sheep Detectives. You’re welcome! Now streaming on Prime Video.
