Enola Holmes

Most casual audiences would probably have no idea who Enola Holmes is. Though she would definitely have her fans, most people more than likely believed her to be a gender-bent version of the iconic fictional detective written by Arthur Conan Doyle, but in actually Enola was a character from a series of young adult fiction detective books written by Nancy Springer from 2006 to 2021. Consisting of eight books, the story of the sister to Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes escaping the conforming expectations of her brothers by running away to London to open her own detective agency to help others as well as track down her missing mother seemed popular enough to be nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Juvenile Mystery in 2007 and 2010 (for the books The Case of the Missing Marquess and The Case of the Cryptic Crinoline) as well as be adapted into a Netflix film in 2020, which turned out to be a very smart idea as it led into a pretty successful film. On her sixteenth birthday, Enola Holmes (played by Millie Bobby Brown) discovers that her mother, Eudoria (played by Helena Bonham Carter) has disappeared without a trace and left her alone (which is ironically Enola backwards which the film reminds you of several times).  Her older brothers, Sherlock, and Mycroft (played by Henry Cavil and Sam Claflin) return home to try and understand her disappearance, and while Sherlock admires his sister’s spirit and intelligence, Mycroft views her as unruly and plans to send her to a finishing school in order to learn proper etiquette. Wanting no part of that and only being interested in finding her mother to see whether or not she was taken (or worse, just left her behind), Enola runs away to London in order to solve it herself. Along the way, she stumbles upon the young Viscount Tewkesbury (played by Louis Partridge) who is also running away to escape a lifestyle that doesn’t support him. The two start to form a connection and Enola is dragged into a much bigger conspiracy involving someone trying to kill Tewkesbury and decides to put her mother’s search on hold in order to save him, unraveling a mystery that has the potential to upend the entire country. Based on the first book in the series, Enola Holmes was one of the most successful original films for Netflix, with about 76 million households watching the film over its first four weeks.

The premise of reintroducing a popular but lesser known and more modern version of the Sherlock Holmes’ narrative through the lens of a younger family member carries a chance of falling flat due to either changing too much of the beloved formula, or by not changing enough to the point where its existence feels pointless. However, the success of the book series as well as its smaller vignette styled stories helps it stand apart from the original Sherlock books, which were larger and more aggressive in tone and presentation. The books showcasing early female empowerment as well as the neo-Victorian era of fashion and style helped it feel more approachable for a young audience while carrying its own sheds of its predecessor, almost acting as a early introduction into the Sherlock universe. It is definitely more like a spin-off of Sherlock rather than something complete out of place and ill-fitting. This film carries with it a lot of similarities to its source material and translates the first books narrative in a proper feature-length film nicely enough to not feel distracting. On the surface, the film does capture a lot of good qualities that were no doubt engaging elements of the book series; it does stand out as a more kid-oriented version of the Sherlock formula, it creates its own universe and style while still having that sense of adventure and mystery, and the characters feel fleshed out and become faces you’d like to see again against the typical Sherlock characters. The movie slumps quite a bit however in terms of how it shapes its narrative as well as the components that make it up. Being a young adult book from the early 2000s, elements of the story and the characters feel slightly outdated and old-fashion by modern audience standards and there isn’t much new added to spice up these aspects (a girl whose wild beyond what’s expected of her, a strict family member telling her to conform to society, being sent off to a boarding school as a punishment, a blooming romance of dueling personalities, conspiracies involving political turmoil and murder, etc). It has a Narnia, Nanny McPhee, Series of Unfortunate Events, kind of attitude going for it, which isn’t necessarily bad as those projects do have unique and stand out atmospheres, but it does make the film feel a little behind the times.  The story also gets side-tracked rather easily, transitioning from the mother story-line into a whole other avenue halfway through and not returning until the final few minutes. Since the mother section is strangely uninteresting and undeveloped however, it makes for a better movie when it does focus on the subplot, which comes with its own can-of-worms.

The characters in this film are decently set-up and some actually do a decent job standing up against others who are from the original series, and it never feels like they are being taken over by the Sherlock brand anytime throughout. While characters like Sherlock and Mycroft are included, they don’t overtake too much screen time and the focus is kept on Enola and her connection with others, which the movie also does quite strongly. Enola feels like a decently fleshed out character; very much following the typical ‘’young girl going against a repressive authority’’ kind of role, but her brains as well as brawny attitude, mixed with her street smarts and still retaining her femininity makes her a good lead to follow, and Millie Bobby Brown does a great job at making her sympathetic and likeable. Louis Partridge is also very strong as her support, carrying a similarly ‘’against the status quo’’ personality but still retaining his masculinity through his charm and demeanor. Its impressive how both characters show qualities that would be considered ‘abnormal’ for the time period, but both also utilize typical qualities of their gender to work in their favors as well, like Enola using dresses and corsets to blend in and even act as a protective gear, it makes them feel like more unique characters and ones that aren’t hindered by their less-than-progressive time period and rather use it as an excuse to be creative. The two are also very cute together; sharing good chemistry and showcasing how they would both make for a good team if this were to spawn into a franchise. Henry Cavil as Sherlock also has his good qualities. Cavil’s acting range seems to be pretty straightforward and not that diverse, but his usual qualities actually work in favour of this role, being very stoic, cold, unemotional, slightly condescending, but feels capable, ahead of others in the room for the most part, and carries a sense of class to him. While the role is pretty minor, his relationship with Enola is fun and the idea of Sherlock feeling outdated from society’s changing viewpoint and how he feels threatened about not being above or secure in a world that favors him is interesting and could be tackled in future projects. Supporting roles like Edith Wokoma and Fiona Shaw bring more fun and energy to this world, but others sadly don’t come across as strongly with people like Sam Claflin feeling very generic and stuck playing an old stereotypical character, and people like Adeel Akhtar and especially Helena Bonham Carter feel wasted in smaller roles that could’ve been better with more time.

One of the aspects of the book series that it was credited for was how it managed to effectively capture the feel, spirit, and look of London during that changing period in its history, down to the attitude of the people, to the type of dialect, to even the style of clothing, and that seems to be a factor that was done well in the film as well. Something about the way that this film portrays London and its people feels a bit more authentic, but still creative and fun at the same time. It has the flair and tone of a young adult story, while capturing the mood and ideals that came from that era, and the production and costume design match that as well with a lot of cool looking outfits for all the characters (probably helped out by the fact that they had set decorator Lisa Chugg, along with Oscar-nominated production designer, Michael Carlin and costume designer Consolata Boyle, attached). The music by Daniel Pemberton has a lot of life, pep and old-fashion mystery chimes to it that makes it nice for a story of this type, but it is a movie that is over-scored like crazy to the point where its hard to find a moment when the movie doesn’t have music going behind it, and it’s a score that’s hard not to pick up on so it can be a little much at times. The movie’s writing isn’t very good at conveying the humor or even the mystery quality of the series especially when it comes to the fourth-wall breaks, which are cute at the beginning but start to feel redundant as the movie keeps going. While the actors have chemistry and some can provide some enjoyable banter between the other (most between Bobby Brown and Partridge), its a film that sadly is trying a lot to be this quirky comedy and it very rarely works in that department. This is strange because the director for this film, Harry Bradbeer, worked on shows like Killing Eve (which has a very spy mystery-based thriller narrative) and Fleabag (a female-centred comedy series that features fourth wall breaking), so he at least has an understanding of these genres so something must have not meshed well when it came to this property.

Considering how successful this film did both from audiences and critics, and how it also has a sequel on Netflix which also seems to have done well on both accounts, Enola Holmes must tap into that specific pocket of what people will fall in love with, because it allows them to overlook elements that aren’t properly ironed out well. The movie is a solid film and features a lot of likeable elements like an enjoyable cast, a distinct and fun style and tone, and allows for a new spin on a famous character so that people can delve back into the world while still being its own thing for a different audience. The story is pretty messy and poorly delivered, the humor and mystery aren’t very well written, and it does feel like its source material is a bit too behind-the-times to feel unique in this age, but it still makes for a fun sit and has enough working for it to warrant checking it out. This smaller predecessor of Sherlock might not be perfect and may not be your style, but it would be nice to see it continue growing and become its own thing somewhere down the line.