Enola Holmes
Directed by: Harry Bradbeer
Written by: Jack Thorne - Based on the book by Nancy Springer
Starring: Mille Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, Sam Claflin, Helena Bonham Carter, Louis Partridge, Fiona Shaw, Adeel Akhtar, Frances de la Tour, Susan Wokoma, Burn Gorman, Claire Rushbrook, David Bamber, Hattie Morahan
Adventure/Crime/Drama - 123 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 21 Sep 2020
Written by: Jack Thorne - Based on the book by Nancy Springer
Starring: Mille Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, Sam Claflin, Helena Bonham Carter, Louis Partridge, Fiona Shaw, Adeel Akhtar, Frances de la Tour, Susan Wokoma, Burn Gorman, Claire Rushbrook, David Bamber, Hattie Morahan
Adventure/Crime/Drama - 123 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 21 Sep 2020
New versions of Sherlock Holmes descend on popular culture more often than just about any other fictional character. There are more versions than James Bond installments, Star Trek branches, and even Avenger spin-offs. We’ve experienced both young and geriatric versions of the eponymous sleuth, but Enola Holmes offers a gender-swapped, hormonal version of the detective protagonist – one which may inspire a new generation to appreciate the art and science of deductive reasoning. However, established Holmes heads may scoff at the elementary puzzle and yearn for another caper with Benedict Cumberbatch or even Robert Downey, Jr. Millie Bobby Brown is fun to watch as a budding detective experimenting with her growing mind powers, but her charm could elude more mature-minded Sherlockians.
Based on one of the six young adult mysteries by Nancy Springer, “The Case of the Missing Marquess: An Enola Holmes Mystery,” the ingenue gumshoe is Sherlock’s younger sister, an apparent “oops” baby who came along as both Mycroft and Sherlock (Henry Cavill, Man of Steel) were already leaving the nest. Millie Bobby Brown’s older sister saw the possibility of adapting the plucky girl into an on-screen persona and the two girls shopped the idea themselves along with their parent’s production company, hence why the girls are also credited producers. Enola thrives through her mother's eclectic home schooling curriculum including reading the entire library, cryptography, and martial arts. When mom (Helena Bonham Carter, Alice Through the Looking Glass) goes missing, the first thing Mycroft and Sherlock notice is their little sister lacks the requisite mastery of embroidery and posture to function as a proper Holmes debutante in polite society.
Based on one of the six young adult mysteries by Nancy Springer, “The Case of the Missing Marquess: An Enola Holmes Mystery,” the ingenue gumshoe is Sherlock’s younger sister, an apparent “oops” baby who came along as both Mycroft and Sherlock (Henry Cavill, Man of Steel) were already leaving the nest. Millie Bobby Brown’s older sister saw the possibility of adapting the plucky girl into an on-screen persona and the two girls shopped the idea themselves along with their parent’s production company, hence why the girls are also credited producers. Enola thrives through her mother's eclectic home schooling curriculum including reading the entire library, cryptography, and martial arts. When mom (Helena Bonham Carter, Alice Through the Looking Glass) goes missing, the first thing Mycroft and Sherlock notice is their little sister lacks the requisite mastery of embroidery and posture to function as a proper Holmes debutante in polite society.
Rather than follow what one expects to be the film’s central thread, finding mom or even the titular Marquess, Enola Holmes confronts England’s cultural turmoil surrounding the progressive ideas of feminism and the woman’s more realized place in the Empire outside of entertaining in the drawing room. Mycroft (Sam Claflin, Charlie's Angels) wants to throw Enola into a boarding school known for straightening out the more feral qualities of a girl’s individuality and producing homogenized ladies ready for marriage and child production. Enola prefers to be considered a human being first and earn recognition for her mind rather than function as a decorative ornament the rest of her life. A major script peculiarity, therefore, is why when Enola first runs away from her older brothers to solve the case of her missing mother by herself, she immediately winds herself around the first boy she meets and adopts his problems as her own.
The missing Marquess is not so much missing as in hiding. Viscount Tewksbury, the Marquess of Basilwether (Louis Partridge, Paddington 2), seems less concerned about the assassin attempting to kill him and more about living his own life by his choices rather than fulfilling the duties expected of him as a nobleman and future addition to the House of Lords. I suppose worrying less about murder than positional formality comes with superior breeding. Enola and Tewksbury form one of those infatuating attachments based on why they don’t like each other instead of aching love at first sight. The villain pulling the strings behind the Tewksbury mystery should be clear enough to those familiar with how one part of the plot affects another, but what most impedes the script is not the junior high feel of the whole endeavor, it’s how the script deals with Enola’s missing mom.
England is undergoing a societal shift. Parliament debates the idea of Women’s Suffrage, thrilling those who believe it is about time to kickstart modernity and those like Mycroft, who wish to maintain their exclusivity by clinging to tradition. Enola follows the clues to reveal nebulous details about secret societies and a possible Guy Fawkes-inspired plot, but none of it goes anywhere. Either the gunpowder and skullduggery are MacGuffin’s meant to push and pull Enola where she needs to be at any given time, or screen writer Jack Thorne couldn’t figure out how to make it all fit. Thorne says he was watching Fleabag, Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s hysterical look at a mess of a British woman, and said he love learning more about the character when she broke the fourth wall to speak to the audience. The director, Harry Bradbeer, who won an Emmy directing Fleabag, loved it too, because he has Enola do the same thing as Fleabag. Enola sharply turns her head toward the camera with a quippy aside or a wink when we need some exposition or a quirky acknowledgement.
Sherlock Holmes is such a fascinating and enjoyable character to watch, there will always be another version of him coming along through any and all mediums. Transferring his talents onto a younger sister is all well and good if it encourages new audiences to employ Enola Holmes as a springboard to some of the more challenging and enigmatic versions out there. Yet, unconnected with the larger Sherlock world, Enola relies more on idiosyncratic quirks and twitchy editing at the expense of a more quixotic mystery to solve. I recognize the mystery is built more for those with far less knowledge of the canon, but any Holmes character comes with certain expectations this script is not adroit enough to meet.
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