We’ve seen plenty of adaptations for Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, such as the Robert Downey Jr. movies, the Benedict Cumberbatch series, and another show in which Watson — Sherlock’s famous companion — is a woman. But “Enola Holmes” is not like any of them, starting by it not being Conan Doyle’s book adaptation, but Nancy Springer’s book series with the same name. You know it will be different from everything we’ve ever seen from the moment it doesn’t tell Sherlock’s story exactly, but his little sister’s, Enola.
When the Holmes siblings were still young, their father died and both of the oldest brothers soon moved away, leaving young Enola to be raised only by her mother. Mycroft, the eldest, is a politician, and Sherlock is a famous detective; so they were never home and they weren’t a part of Enola’s early life. But her mother raised her properly over sixteen years by homeschooling her with every single type of exercise she could, physical, intellectual, emotional, which ended up in quite an interesting young girl.
But the mother disappeared overnight on Enola’s sixteenth birthday, which made her brothers come back home to take care of her. Mycroft is very conservative and thinks that his sister isn’t a decent young woman, who was raised improperly, and it’s more interested in “fixing” her than solving his missing mother’s case. And with that, Enola runs away to avoid going to a finishing school and to find her dear mother, but gets involved in some young Viscount’s trouble midway.
The movie is so lighthearted and perfect to watch in a chill afternoon. But even though it’s very cute and fun to watch, it’s full of social criticism, especially feminism, as you can see all the time, with Enola not being a conventional girl as she was expected to be. She’s extraordinarily clever and observant, and is always protesting and wondering why she can’t do things her own way.
It counts with great cast of many known and respected British actors such as Millie Bobby Brown, from “Stranger Things”, Henry Cavill, from “Superman” and “The Witcher”, Sam Claffin, from “Love, Rosie” and “Peaky Blinders”, Helena Boham Carter, Frances de La Tour and Fiona Shawn, “from Harry Potter”, and Louis Partridge, a newbie with his first credited movie being this one.
Millie Bobby Brown was a perfect choice for the job considering she has the “cool girl” profile in real life and brought it to her character, and it ended in the perfectly fitting in the movie. The way she interacts with the other characters is marvelous — especially with Sherlock and Tewkesbury. Every scene is always unexpected and you can’t take your eyes off the screen just to see what she has to do next.
Oh, and talking about taking your eyes off the screen, you better not get distracted in this one — which I doubt you will — because it’s a very visual movie. Everything that’s being said is shown on screen and it’s very important for you to pay attention to it so you can understand every little part of the girl’s investigation. Every single detail is crucial and shouldn’t be missed.
Henry Cavill’s Sherlock is one of the best ones out there. He’s very different from the others we’re used to, like Cumberbatch’s. He has feelings and is much more emotional than ever seen before, and seems to be very fond of his little sister, even though they didn’t see each other very often, before the mother’s disappearance. And it’s very positive to know that the movie doesn’t go around telling the story of Sherlock Holmes’s younger sister — that’s just a small detail included in the story.
Sam Claffin’s fans must’ve been surprised to get such a hateful character that you’re always rooting against in this movie. He somehow becomes the bad guy in this one, and for those who haven’t read the book, this was unexpected. He’s been taking some of these roles since “Peaky Blinders”’s season 5, when he interpreted Mosley, the leader of the British Union of Fascists. And his characterization in the movie doesn’t fall far away from Mosley’s. Mycroft has a lot in common with Claffin’s role in the series.
But what was quite a pleasant surprise was Louis Partridge, who just started his career and is already breaking hearts. Tewkesbury is probably the cutest character in the movie with his knowledge in flowers and the way he cares about Enola. Their interaction is just… the best! They will get in a lot of trouble together, but you’ll want to stick around to see more of their adventures.
There’s still no information if there’s going to be a second movie considering the book it is based on is part of a series, but it’s now available worldwide and already got many fans, hitting number one on Netflix’s charts all over the world. And it’s definitely worth checking it out!
Watch the trailer:
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This article was edited by Amanda Oestreich.
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