A flock of sheep investigates the murder of their shepherd. Kyle Balda directs a Craig Mazin script adapted from Leonie Swann's Three Bags Full, and for a good while the premise carries itself: Julia Louis-Dreyfus's Lily is a genuinely competent detective, the sheep-logic misreadings of human behaviour are funny, and Hugh Jackman makes the dead man worth missing in the few flashbacks he gets.
The problem is what's underneath. Strip out the wool and it's a standard inheritance mystery — estranged children, a hidden fortune, a suspect in disguise — and once the plot takes over, the animal perspective stops doing any real work. The final act could be any village whodunit with a flock standing in the field watching it happen. Critics were considerably warmer than this, and fairly: it's handsome, kind, and completely painless family viewing. It just never quite answers why the story needed sheep after the joke settles.
Rating: 3/5