Film Reviews & Movie Analysis

When she wakes up on her sixteenth birthday to find her mother gone without so much as a note, Enola Holmes (Millie Bobby Brown) investigates.

At first she is pleased when her brothers Mycroft (Sam Claflin) and Sherlock (Henry Cavill) turn up in her hour of need, but when she discovers that their intentions do not align, she forges ahead on her own.

London is worlds away from the life Enola has always known but she isn’t about to let that, her brothers or the mystery surrounding Viscount Tewskbury, Marquess of Basilwether (Louis Partridge) distract her from finding her mother.

When I watched the trailer (well half… Netflix trailers tend to go on a bit) I was immediately intrigued by the whimsical narration and the twist of the Holmes connection (I didn’t put two and two together until the men showed up). Sprinkle a little Helen Bonham Carter to play Enola’s missing mother Eudoria and it seemed like a movie I wouldn’t want to miss.

I did enjoy the movie – I really did…. However there were a few things that stopped me liking it as much as I wanted to: Enola spoke/looked at the audience a little too much, which wasted precious seconds, halting the pacing, and keeping the audience from being on the mystery with her.

Mycroft especially made out as if Enola was a wild horse to be broken. I agree, in London she stuck out like a sore thumb: she wore no hat, had no escort, casually had a guy in her room etc. The problem was nobody but Mycroft expressed her eccentricness, so the whole arc of getting her to a finishing school felt out of sync/a pointless conflict.

Finally, Sherlock. I really enjoyed this depiction of him, but simultaneously it didn’t sit right. When has Sherlock Holmes ever been quiet, emotional, sentimental, or done something without personal gain? He was Sherlock by name only.

Okay so all of that now said, there were a lot of things that I found incredibly enjoyable about Enola Holmes. Excuse my objectification for a moment but at the top of the list has to be Henry Cavill, whose attractiveness level was for some unidentifiable reason through the roof in this movie.

*Clears throat* Now where was I…. Enola Holmes was a very sweet movie. It gave us a different take on a Sherlock Holmes-esque story and acts as a great way to introduce a younger audience to the character and the period.

The character of Enola is just the sort of girl you would want to imagine yourself joining on zany adventures. She is incredibly intelligent, quick witted, didn’t get tongue tied in front of a boy and can basically hold her own in a street fight – what isn’t to be admired?

It was nice to see a British movie geared towards children that wasn’t overly childish – a rarity which meant it was also a decent watch for adults too. Just when I was reminding myself it was made for a younger audience – it would smack me in the face with a pretty damn visceral attempted murder scene.

Lastly, I thought it was nice that the movie featured some blind casting. I love a period drama, but it does get incredibly irritating having a sea of White faces. You could argue historical accuracy, but I could double down on the fictional aspect. Not to mention the real world issue of a lack of roles for ethnic actors, especially in British film and TV.

There were some pretty heavy hints that there could be a second movie. I don’t need to the sister of a high functioning sociopath with a mind palace to tell you that its most likely going to get green lit.