Enola Holmes (2020)

Movie Info

Enola goes it alone

Enola Holmes (Millie Bobby Brown) has lived a sheltered life. Growing up in the country and raised by her mother Eudoria (Helena Bonham Carter), she barely knows her older brothers Mycroft (Sam Claflin) and Sherlock (Henry Cavill), but loves following Sherlock’s adventures in crime solving. One night, Eudoria disappears leaving no evidence to her location, and Enola finds herself the ward of Mycroft who has vowed to make her a proper woman. Enola has other plans and sets out to forge her own path and find her mother. When she encounters the runaway Lord Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge), Enola finds herself enveloped in a dangerous mystery that could get her killed.

Directed by Harry Bradbeer, Enola Holmes is a mystery action film. The movie adapts the Nancy Springer young-adult The Enola Holmes Mysteries and is loosely based on the first novel in the series The Case of the Missing Marquess (2006). The film was released to Netflix on September 23, 2020 and received relatively positive reviews.

The character of Sherlock Holmes often can be too stuffy and too pretentious. Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes was too action and too far from the character (though if you had to choose someone to play him like that, Robert Downey Jr. was a good choice). Enola Holmes tries to find a bit of a happy medium to the action-based Downey Jr. movies and a more traditional Sherlock Holmes while trying to appeal to a younger generation…and for the most part, it succeeds.

Better step up your game, Sherlock (and I wouldn’t mind seeing a Cavill Sherlock movie too)

The story is a little less mystery based than I would have preferred, but there is a bit of mystery within the story. Enola’s character however is charming and with frequent breaking of the fourth wall with insights into her actions, she has an Emma Woodhouse feel from Jane Austen’s character (with of course a bit more jujitsu or bartitsu…which was a thing in London at the time and used in Doyle’s mysteries). While the story does have a romance involved for the character, the film goes a long way to show that if Enola goes pursue a relationship with Tewkesbury, it will be her choice.

As in most of her films and roles, Millie Bobby Brown brings a realism to the character that other actresses might lack. The film (literally) pulls no punches and Brown finds herself taking a beating at the hands of Burn Gorman a few times. Her character is smart, but different than Sherlock and approaches mysteries in a different way with a different style of innovation that makes Enola just not a young and female version of the character. I enjoy Henry Cavill’s Sherlock and Sam Claflin plays a typical kind of jerky Mycroft when compared to his brother. Helena Bonham Carter feels a bit underused, but with the idea of future movies, I hope her role expands.

Thank you! May I have another!

The movie isn’t the most inventive Victorian style movie, but it is a good looking movie set in old England and London. The sets and locations feel real and the movie has some fun with disguises in the sense of Brown’s character…something she can utilize more since she in general is “seen” in society when stories are supposed to take place.

Enola Holmes shows great potential. It isn’t a let down in that it doesn’t reach its full potential, but I feel that the movie sets up future movies that could both enrich the character and in turn enrich this film. If this film were to be a stand-alone movie, it is fun and enjoyable. It is a welcomed turn on the typical Sherlock Holmes story that hopefully will continue.