Enola Holmes can be summed up in just one word: Fun. It isn't simply about the younger sister of famed 19th Century detective, Sherlock Holmes. It is about a young woman who is looking for her mother and ends up entwined in a mystery that could end up having dire consequences for all of England if it is not solved. All because of a boy.
Based on The Case of the Missing Marquess, the first book in the Enola Holmes series by Nancy Springer, Enola Holmes is not only a great movie, but it's a great set up for a series of Netflix Original Films. Millie Bobby Brown, who we all know from Stranger Things, plays Enola, the 16 year old sister to Sherlock Holmes, played by Superman himself, Henry Cavill, and their older brother, Mycroft Holmes, who is definitely the reason that Sherlock doesn't keep in touch with his family once he becomes a famous detective. Not that that's stated in the movie, but if I had a brother like that I wouldn't want to keep in touch with my family either. Just sayin'.
I'm not a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes. I read The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes when I borrowed it from the school library in grade six. I also had the Illustrated Classics edition of the book in my collection when I was a kid. But it was never something I gravitated to, preferring to read The Hardy Boys and The Three Investigators for my mystery reading pleasure.
I also read The Hound of the Baskervilles in grade nine. The grade nine class had Take Your Kids to Work Day in October every year. The problem is that when I was in grade nine, neither of my parents were employed as my dad had just gotten laid off, and my mom had "retired" at the beginning of that summer to take care of me following an operation on my leg, which required me to be off the leg for a few weeks, leaving me bedridden. Anyway, since my parents didn't work, and I didn't know anyone I could go to work with, I stayed home that day, helped my mom around the house, and worked on an independent book study to be handed into my English teacher. I chose The Hound of the Baskervilles because I had never read it before and I was interested enough in Sherlock Holmes, as a character, that I decided to read it.
All this was to say that I know enough about Sherlock Holmes to be immediately interested in watching this movie. Henry Cavill plays an excellent Sherlock Holmes in this movie. While I liked the first movie starring Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes, I actually prefer Cavill's interpretation. It's much less of a dark, tragic figure than Downey's was and more along the lines of what I remember Holmes to be from the two books I read. Cavill's is also more mischievious and playful than Downey's is.
Of course I would be remiss if I did not mention Enola Holmes herself, played by Millie Bobby Brown. Eleven is one of my favourite characters on Stranger Things, but I was surprised at how well Millie played the character of Enola, who I'm only encountering for the first time here, as I've never read the book this movie is based on. She was likeable, and while she had to prove herself to her brothers, though Mycroft is not impressed in the slightest, she doesn't whine and bitch about it. Instead she just goes off and does what she needs to do in order to find her mother, and to protect Lord Tewkesbury from being killed by an assassin and figuring out who hired the assassin in the first place.
The only other two cast members that I recognized were Helena Bonham Carter, who we all know as Bellatrix Lestrange in the Harry Potter film series, and Fiona Shaw, who played Aunt Petunia in the Harry Potter film series. The rest of the cast is completely unfamiliar to me, which is nice, because I can see them as their characters rather than as themselves or previous characters they've played. Even with the four cast members that I am familiar with, they all fall into their roles so that I can see Henry Cavill as Sherlock Holmes instead of Superman, Millie Bobby Brown as Enola instead of Eleven, Helena Bonham Carter as Eudoria Holmes instead of Bellatrix, and Fiona Shaw as Miss Harrison instead of Aunt Petunia. Which is nice.
One thing that I really appreciate about this movie is that they kept it in the traditional Sherlock Holmes period of the Victorian Era, circa late 1880s or early 1890s rather than attempt to modernize it and bring it into the early 21st Century. While streaming services are pretty good about making shows and movies set in eras other than the current one, Enola Holmes was originally supposed to be a theatrical release, only going to Netflix with the pandemic, and Hollywood is notorious for modernizing movie and TV show adaptations of comic books and novels. Though they do tend to leave the classics where they are. But still, the fact that they kept this movie adaptation in the Victorian era is pretty awesome.
This has nothing to do with the movie, but one of the reasons I'm pleased with the setting of the movie, is that I grew up reading books like The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain and Emily of New Moon by Lucy Maude Montgomery, as well as watching shows like Road to Avonlea, Murdoch Mysteries, and the TV show adaptation of Emily of New Moon as well as films like Tom & Huck. Upper Canada Village is one of my favourite places to visit. So while I did prefer reading The Hardy Boys over Sherlock Holmes I have an appreciation for the 19th Century in general, the Victorian era in particular, that other people might not have unless they also grew up watching those shows and movies and reading those books like I did.
Without giving anything away, I was quite happy that I discovered who the villain truly was at the same time that Enola and Tewkesbury did rather than figuring it out several steps before they did. With modern day murder mysteries and whodunit cases, I tend to figure it out before the detectives, or whoever the main characters are, because they aren't complicated at all. At least in movies and on TV shows. All of the mystery shows Castle, NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles, and even Murdoch Mysteries, which is set in Canada in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century, I tend to solve the mystery before the main characters do. So it was refreshing to watch a movie where I solved it at the same time as the protagonists did and was even as surprised as they were when the true villain of the story was revealed.
One thing that initially confused me in the movie is whether or not Holmes knew Dr. Watson at this point. From the quick research I did before writing this review, the books seem to indicate that Holmes and Watson are working together. However, I think the movie is set before Holmes is acquainted with Watson, as Sherlock is alone while tracking Enola and working on the Tewkesbury case, and Inspector Lestrade, Holmes's contact at Scotland Yard, indicates that Sherlock doesn't have an assistant. Which is the proof I need I guess, but still, it's weird.
Final Thoughts and Rating: Overall, Enola Holmes is a great movie. As I said at the beginning of this review, this is a fun movie to watch. It also reminds me of the kinds of movies that I grew up watching, like Tom & Huck. The danger was real enough that you could believe that Enola could get hurt or killed if she wasn't careful, but not so real that you couldn't believe that she'd be alright in the end, being the main character of the movie. The cast was excellent and the mystery was refreshingly complex enough that I was engaged the entire time, instead of simply waiting for the characters to catch up to where I was in the story. I'm giving Enola Holmes 10/10 stars.
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7846844/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
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