Enola Holmes

• Directed by Harry Bradbeer
• September 23, 2020 (Netflix)
• Based on the 2006 book The Case of the Missing Marquess: An Enola Holmes Mystery by Nancy Springer

Young Enola Holmes travels to London to find her missing mother but instead pairs up with a runaway lord-in-waiting as she attempts to solve a mystery that may threaten the country.

I went into Enola Holmes knowing that it was a Millie Bobby Brown vehicle and not a Sherlock Holmes mystery film. I think the last Sherlock movie I saw from start to finish had Basil Rathbone. You can call this a spinoff of Sherlock Holmes stories since it’s based off a book based off of the Sherlock Holmes stories. Enola Holmes is a creation of the author of the book upon which this is based. Yay?

My first issue is the significant (in my view) fourth wall breaking by Millie Bobby Brown-as-Enola. Perhaps it’s an aspect of the novels translated into film. Perhaps this is something they thought would work well in a movie. In reality it is annoying.

Why is it annoying? Because the expression on Brown’s face always appears like she is about to tell you exactly what to think because no other interpretation is possible. In a way the character of Enola does because this movie needs to tell you how to experience it rather than leaving the experience up to the individual. That’s what these fourth wall moments come down to and no, I’m watching the movie. Not you.

Whatever excitement or interest is built by solving the mystery or getting chased by the evil henchmen was completely undone by the need to address the audience. If this is from the book that may have worked there, but it doesn’t work in what was originally intended as a feature film. It ruins the flow by telling the audience what to perceive or how to feel.

Sherlock (Henry Cavill) and his brother Mycroft (Sam Claflin) reconnect with their sister when their mother Eudoria (Helena Bonham Carter) up and disappears leaving behind vague possible clues to her daughter.

Helena Bonham Carter does excellent with the material but there’s a lot of defense of her character of Eudoria who treats Enola more like a pal to hang out with than her child to raise. Eudoria looks to have an aversion to basic responsibility. The house is shambles and the property is an overgrown mess. Toss in that she up and left her daughter with only cryptic information but the daughter is defending her and characters that know the mother often defend her while finding excuses for why she just decided to leave. It’s the height of irresponsibility to abandon your child to an employee until your son arrives!

The search for Mommy leads to a murder mystery/attempted murder mystery involving the young Viscount Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge) that ultimately connects to a larger plot to prevent the expansion of voting rights in Britain. If this story were more focused on solving that mystery than offering social critiques aimed at today or going out of its way to show how much better Enola was than anybody, I might’ve been more entertained.

Heck if there was anybody else besides Brown I might’ve been more entertained. She lacks any charisma or screen presence. Brown fails to make her character interesting. She also fails to possess chemistry with Partridge who this mystery ultimately centers around. It is nothing more than blushing because he’s cute. A significant shared experience and the best is shy over a boy?

In the story, because of the mother’s disappearance, Enola becomes the ward of Mycroft. The thing is Mycroft is almost superfluous to the whole story. He barely matters. Sherlock is much more important to events often acting as a teacher when he’s not getting dressed down by some character for being a man or for coming from privilege. Not that Enola needs a tutor. It’s just more reinforcing what she already knows or can do.

Feminist tales are fine and this is a feminist tale. Give me a strong female character because all around her are strong and she is their equal. Give me a woman in an ensemble cast who contributes to the story. Enola is better than everyone and only needs to decide to be better over having growth or a character arc. She doesn’t step up to the challenge. She’s already better and can do it all herself. Moments of dialogue reinforce that fictional reality.

I did like the moments between Mycroft and Sherlock. They came off as two brothers who were very similar yet had one or two things that they would not give on which kept them miles apart. I’m not sure how they play in the books, but it would’ve been interesting to see more of them working through whatever problems they had. Then again that would make it NOT an Enola Holmes movie.

Sometimes Enola wants to be serious and sometimes it wants to be a fun adventure. In one instance she might be running from a murderer. In others she is running almost comedic rings around more experienced adults or charming Tewkesbury’s grandmother (Frances de la Tour) with her spunk. That last one strikes me as really poorly conceived by the writers.

Enola Holmes was a bit of a slog to get through. Waffling between a lecture and a diatribe, it was joyless and lacked excitement. By the credits I was almost disinterested in who did it or why. I say skip.