I had the most amazing experience recently, and it took several months to occur.

A few months ago, I saw a trailer for a movie called The Sheep Detectives. It was buried within the usual plethora of dull, repetitive, off-putting trailers and, at first glance seemed like a terrible idea that would be laden with bad CGI and relying on cutesiness and sheep puns. The funny thing, though, is that while there were some clunkers in the trailer, there was a clever idea underneath along the lines of, say, 101 Dalmatians, where animals have a human adventure.

Then there came another trailer, not quite as fresh as the first, but still, not off-putting. (Compare and contrast this year’s Wuthering Heights, the trailers from which went from not-for-me to kill-it-with-fire.)

Then, the movie was released. And on the first day, The Boy and I trundled off to see it.

And it was good.

It was exactly what it said on the tin: A story about sheep who solve a murder.

It was “diverse,” in the modern sense of the word, but that was irrelevant. The story is that George (Hugh Jackman), a shepherd lives outside a small town where pretty much everyone is a jerk. This is a standard set-up for a murder mystery, since it makes everyone a potential suspect.

It feels very English, even though the bestselling novel was originally written German and set in Ireland.

Apart from Hugh Jackman, the only other face I recognized was Emma Thompson, who plays the shifty lawyer Lydia Harbottle. The sheep are all voiced by celebrities, the only voice I recognized being Patrick Stewart. I read that Bryan Cranston was Sebastian, the big ram, and that clicked with me. They were all fine, but I (as always) question this practice of using face actors in voice actors’ roles.

They’re claiming a $75M budget, which they won’t make up at the box office, is why I mention it.

But this is not our concern.

Everyone does a good job, the people feel like real people with real motivations, the mystery—if you think about it for very long and you’re at all familiar with mysteries, you’ll figure it out right away, but the movie does a good job of sleight-of-handing with charming sheep bits, so you can be easily distracted.

Molly Gordon plays the shepherd’s daughter who, with the help of the dopey but increasingly competent Officer Tim (Nicholas Braun of Saturday Night and Dream Scenario) tracks the killer down to the obvious suspect (after getting it wrong, repeatedly, of course). They’re both quite good. Gordon is interesting because she’s featured prominently in several movies that I nearly saw: Shiva, Baby; Theater Camp; and especially, Oh, Hi, where she and her boyfriend go for a weekend retreat in a cabin and she restrains him in bed—for the purpose of establishing the nature of their relationship, and things spiral out of control.

It had awful reviews but I was still sorely tempted to see that one. The other two movies are favorites of the Barbarienne.

Anyway, the acting is good, but you’d expect that. The writing is good, though, and you don’t expect that. The sheep have certain characteristics that can apply metaphorically to humans, like the ability to forget bad things instantly, but they’re all in that category where it’s: “Yes, I can see that as an analogue but I can’t pin it on a current event the movie makers are trying to make a statement about.”

The colors are artificial but not in a bad way. The CGI is kept out of the uncanny valley. They’re sheep but they’d never fool you. The humor works mostly, and when it’s not outright funny, it’s pleasant enough. Like, they’re not doing wacky stuff and then doing takes to the audience like Fozzy bear.

Director Kyle Balda’s previous work (Minions, Despicable 3, The Lorax) doesn’t exactly fill one with confidence, while screenwriter Craig Mazin…I guess it depends on your sense of humor. His first film was the under-rated, dumb-funny Rocket Man, followed by some Scary Movie sequels, The Hangover III…and then, “Mythic Quest” and “The Last of Us”. “Mythic Quest” is interesting because besides being well-structured as a show, Mazin was a recurring character as well as writing one of the episodes. I haven’t seen “The Last of Us” but I hear good things. (Cue the Ken Beatrice “Arby’s fries” commercials.)

This extraordinary experience used to be the norm, by the way: You’d see a trailer for a movie, get interested, see a second or third trailer that piqued your interest more, then you’d go see the movie, and it would be more-or-less what you expected (within some fairly broad parameters). Most of the time, it’d be good for what it was, i.e., an hour-and-forty-minute diversion with some very nice elements. You’d get disappointments, too, typically in the writing category. (This is because everyone in Hollywood thinks he’s a writer.) And occasionally you’d be surprised by the way a movie went, which I usually enjoyed, but which isn’t particularly good for box office.

I cannot remember the last time I had this experience. I avoid trailers. When I see trailers, I often regret it. They’re usually for movies I’m not interested in, and the trailers themselves make me suspicious—they’re trying to trick me into watching a movie that thinks its main goal is to correct me.

I won’t go nuts and say this (with Project Hail Mary) is a harbinger, but it is weird that twice in one year, we’ve had mainstream movies promise something, deliver on it, and not screw it up with unnecessary additives.