double55's review is *spot on*!

This is an excellent amateur short film effort.

The only drawback:( - the voices are out of sync:(

Otherwise the acting/camera work/directing etc. are very good:)

This is *a must see* :)

Just Saying.....

(please ignore any errors w/sp./gram.)

I downloaded the MPEG 4 file of this six months ago. It has serious sound/sync problems that I was unable to resolve through re-editing. Nonetheless, I have watched this some 5 times, and my respect for it has grown into admiration.
The Man with the Twisted Lip is one of the more problematic Holmes stories. First, it depends on what amounts to an 'urban myth,' that beggars can take home enough to support a middle-class life-style, which is patent nonsense.
But there are two other issues that are somewhat disturbing as well; first, Holmes' initial reconstruction of the evidence is entirely false, and we would never have known that had not Sinclair written a further letter to his wife. One of the major criticism of the Holmes narratives is their dependence on the 'common knowledge' of the time - the understanding, for instance, that if you hold your wrist in in a certain way you must be a retired military person (or if you hold it another way you may be gay); whereas you may be holding your wrist that way because you accidently strained it (unaccountable in the 'common knowledge' since specific to the individual). Doyle, through Holmes, confronts that issue in a satisfactory way, by quietly invoking the rule that 'once the impossible has been eliminated, whatever is left, however improbable, must be true.' Since it is impossible for the dead to send letters, the entire reconstruction of the 'crime' has to be re-written to account for the improbable - namely that the 'victim' is actually the protagonist.
The present interpretation of Doyle's story captures that brilliantly, without having to rewrite the original dilemma, as other film/videos have. And it also confronts, without resolution, the problematic with which the story opens - namely - what the heck is Holmes doing in that opium den at the beginning of the story? Is he really investigating the case, or is he using the case to indulge yet another addiction? The present production highlights that problem without resolving it - exactly as it should. One of the reasons "The Man With the Twisted Lip" continues to interest us is because it quietly emphasizes the differences between Holme and Watson, and how little Watson really knows about Holmes.
On the technical side - beyond the sound/sync problem, which is undoubtedly why so little notice is given to this production, the film is quite artfully made. I find little to fault in the camera work and editing. The actors are all amatuers, but they each do remarkably well. I find them all completely believeable in their roles. The whole style may remind viewers familiar with the recent BBC revisionary "Sherlock" series - accept this was made a couple years before that, and thus stands as being 'ahead of its time' in the effort to update Holmes to the 21st century. The scene in which Holmes/Hawkes spends the night chainsmoking cigarettes is both totally contemporary and totally Holmes.
It has problems - technically many may find the sound/sync problem wholly unacceptible, others may dismiss it as a fan-film production. But please give this film a try - it stands as the best interpretation of "The Man with the Twisted Lip" that I've seen, and a remarkably successful effort to bring Holmes into the 21st century.