Hugh Jackman just made his highest-rated film, and it isn’t “Logan.” It’s a PG murder mystery in which his character, a Cotswolds shepherd, is found dead in the first act and the case is solved by his flock.
“The Sheep Detectives” sits at 96% on Rotten Tomatoes after 26 reviews, according to a tally cited by Yahoo Entertainment and ComingSoon. That nudges past “Bad Education” to take the top slot in Jackman’s filmography. “Logan,” for reference, hangs at 93%.
The film opens in U.S. theaters on May 8, distributed by Amazon MGM Studios.
Director Kyle Balda is making his live-action debut after years inside Illumination on “Despicable Me 3” and “Minions: The Rise of Gru.” The screenplay is by Craig Mazin, the “Last of Us” showrunner, adapted from Leonie Swann’s 2005 cozy crime novel “Three Bags Full.” Producers Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Lindsay Doran came aboard through Working Title, with Phil Lord and Christopher Miller listed as executive producers.
Jackman plays George Hardy, a kindly shepherd who reads detective novels aloud to his sheep at night, never realizing they understand every word. When he turns up dead, the flock takes over the investigation. The voice cast does the heavy lifting from there. Julia Louis-Dreyfus voices Lily, a Shetland ewe who becomes the de facto lead. Bryan Cranston is Sebastian, an older ram with a carnival past. Patrick Stewart, Chris O’Dowd, Regina Hall, Bella Ramsey, Brett Goldstein and Rhys Darby fill out the rest of the herd.
Critics keep landing on the same comparison.
In Variety, Guy Lodge called the film a rare all-ages picture with the closest tonal cousin being the first two “Paddington” movies. Pete Hammond at Deadline went broader, framing it as a charmer that splits the difference between “Babe” and “Knives Out,” with a sprinkle of Agatha Christie. IGN’s Jim Vejvoda wrote that watching it is like imagining “Babe” if it had to solve the murder of Farmer Hoggett.
Louis-Dreyfus is getting the loudest individual praise. Tim Grierson, writing for AV Club, said she steals the picture, with Lily carrying none of the bite of Elaine Benes or Selina Meyer. He credited her with giving a lightweight family movie an emotional core that lands in the closing stretch.
The reception isn’t unanimous. The Hollywood Reporter’s Frank Scheck found the photorealistic sheep more eerie than charming, and wrote that the film never gels, splitting the difference between too dark for kids and too silly for adults. Digital Spy’s Jo Berry felt Hong Chau and Emma Thompson were underused. On Metacritic, where the math is harsher, the film sits at 69, “generally favorable” but not a love-in.
Even THR’s pan opens with a tip of the hat to one detail. The MGM lion at the top of the film, instead of roaring, lets out a quiet “BAA.”
Production wrapped in summer 2024 across Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Oxfordshire and Surrey, with key shoots at White Pond Farm in Ivinghoe and at Shepperton Studios. Framestore handled the visual effects on the talking flock. Cinematographer George Steel shot the English countryside, per the Variety review, with almost too much sun for a place that’s normally overcast.
The film was originally titled “Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Movie” and dated for February. Amazon MGM moved it once, then renamed and shifted it again to clear the lane. It now opens against “Mortal Kombat II” and the second weekend of “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” with “The Mandalorian and Grogu” arriving two weeks later.
Runtime is 1 hour, 49 minutes. Rated PG. The lion baas on May 8.
