Enola Holmes is a 2020 Netflix-production written by Jack Thorne and directed by Harry Bradbeer. It stars Henry Cavill, Sam Claflin and Burn Gorman, but above all the foremost role of Enola is performed by Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown. The movie currently scores a 6.6/10 on IMDb‘s fan rating and received a 68 Metascore from the critics.
A Summary
Enola Holmes is based on the book ‘The Case of the Missing Marquess: An Enola Holmes Mystery’ by Nancy Springer. In this story, the youngest member of the Holmes family, Enola (Millie Bobby Brown), is going on an adventure to find her mother. She left on the day of her sixteenth birthday, without any notice to her daughter.
After the sudden disappearance, Enola’s older brothers arrive at her house, Mycroft (Sam Claflin) en Sherlock Holmes (Henry Cavill). Mycroft is her ward, as he is the oldest living member of her family and as such he wants to send her to a school to learn the proper etiquette of a rich woman in England. Enola, though, is not interested in such matters and neither was her mother. She decides to run away to London to find her mother.
During her travels, she runs into the missing marquess Tewkesbury. He is also trying to escape from his family as he wants to become a Lord instead of joining the army. But, his grandmother sent Linthorn (Burn Gorman) to chase and kill him. Enola and Tewkesbury run into him on the train and can barely escape his grasp. Together they travel to London where Enola decides it better that their paths separate.
Enola goes on detective search through London to find clues to the whereabouts of her mother. Meantime, she runs into Linthorn again, she gets found by Mycroft, she gets sent to a school for ladies and escapes that school with some help of Tewkesbury, who she already had a run-in with earlier in London. Then they leave for the estate of Tewkesbury’s family.
They find out that it was his grandmother who was trying to get him killed and with the threat removed he can finally become a Lord, where he turns out to be the decisive vote on a reform bill. Enola gets reunited with her mother and she decides to become a full-time detective, just like Sherlock.
The Story
My knowledge on the Sherlock Holmes stories comes mostly from the BBC series Sherlock, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. Both Sherlock and Mycroft play significant roles in that series, but Enola is never even mentioned. That series is all about the detective work, which is what the Sherlock Holmes story is best known for. In Enola Holmes, they are playing into that concept, with Enola needing to find the wannabe murderer of Tewkesbury as well as her mother.
There is some real potential in the story, but it is not used in the movie. It starts interestingly with the viewer learning about Enola’s childhood to setup later discoveries. However, the story becomes a bit bleach during the latter stages of the movie. It starts an adventure for Enola but quickly turns into a crime-solving detective story with side-stories about love and equal rights. The film wants to be too many genres in one. For example, cut the parts where Enola is looking for her mother and the reform bill. Just tell the story of Enola solving the mystery concerning the missing marquess.
The Characters
Enola Holmes
I think her character is interesting and has some potential. She is written like a fun, excited and careless girl, who knows what she wants in life, which is to be controversial. Her character is amplified by Millie Bobby Brown performance, as I believe she does a great job of depicting this character.
However, her capabilities sound a bit too familiar to me. She is extremely smart, sharp-minded and sees things others do not. Mmm… Let me think. Sounds like Sherlock Holmes doesn’t it? If you ask me she could almost be a one-on-one copy of her older brother, with the only difference being their backstory. She learned everything she knows from reading books, without any education other than her mothers.
Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes
Enola’s older brothers play a smaller role in this film but are of importance to the plot. Mycroft wants her to become a proper lady and marry some Lord, while Sherlock does not really out his opinion on her future or any opinion at all for that matter. This is largely in line with my knowledge of these characters. Mycroft wants the best for his family, even though they might not want his help and Sherlock does not care about anything other than his cases.
But, there comes the problem of Sherlock’s character in this movie. As the film progresses he gets interested in Enola’s wellbeing. He shows sympathy, helps her out from time to time and even wants to become her ward. This is not how I know Sherlock Holmes. He does not show emotion, just none at all, ever. I am not the only who sees it that way as The Conan Doyle Estate, the owner of the Sherlock Holmes copyright, has filed a lawsuit against Netflix as well as the author of the book. Because Sherlock Holmes showed emotions.
A lawsuit may be overdoing it a bit too much, but I get their point. Sherlock becomes way too empathic with his younger sister, while the broader audience has never seen Sherlock act this way. It adds negatively to the details of the story and its characters.
The Production
Enola Holmes has some beautiful landscape shots during Enola’s adventures as well as excellent buildings and clothing. But, there is a major flaw in this movie’s production. It overuses CGI, a lot. It seems like Netflix just wants to use CGI for the heck of it. The old steam trains are full CGI from the outside as well as the whole city of London during aerial shots. Even a shot of only a cliff was made fully in CGI, come on man, you could not find a single cliff to shoot that shot?
An interesting addition the production is the use of drawings to tell some details of the story. They are fine drawings featuring the actors who portray the character in this movie. So, you will see a drawing of Henry Cavill when they are talking about Sherlock Holmes, which adds to the fun of the film.