Film Review: Enola Holmes (2020)

The introduction of Sherlock Holmes as a character of literary fiction preceded the arrival of cinema by only a few short years, a fact that meant the world’s most famous, most iconic, and most popular detective would very quickly become subject of numerous screen incarnations. Throughout the subsequent century or so, those incarnations varied wildly in their adherence to Arthur Conan Doyle’s original source material, with some creators taking wildly unconventional or alternative takes. It was all inevitable, therefore, that Netflix would ultimately try its hand at the canon, and in 2020 arrived Enola Holmes. This version of Sherlock Holmes could be described as a textbook example of Netflix adaptations of popular source materials—big on spectacle, heavy on brand, and willing to strip away the original bones of the story to build something entirely new in its image.

The "Netflixication" of Holmes can be observed immediately by the title itself. Sherlock Holmes is not the actual protagonist; instead, it is his youngest sister Enola Holmes (Millie Bobby Brown). She is a vivacious and free-spirited 16-year-old girl who had spent much of her childhood living with her mother, Eudoria (Helena Bonham Carter). Eudoria is presented as a force of nature who taught Enola jiujitsu, various practical skills, and, most importantly, how to defy Victorian England’s rigid societal expectations of the submissive role of women.

The plot begins when Eudoria mysteriously disappears shortly before Enola’s 16th birthday. Her older siblings—Sherlock (Henry Cavill), and Mycroft (Sam Claflin)—arrive to take care of her, but complications soon arise. Mycroft, acting as her legal guardian, insists that she be taken into an oppressive girls’ boarding school run by the stern Miss Harrison (Fiona Shaw). Enola, refusing to be tamed, escapes and, using flower cards and various clues left by her mother, sets out to find her. The trail leads inevitably to London. Enola meets Edward Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge), a young aristocrat who has escaped from his own home but is pursued by a sinister-looking assassin called Lintorn (Burn Gorman). Enola and Tewkesbury travel to London where they would part ways, and it is there that Enola finds clues suggesting her mother was involved in a militant suffragette movement. Enola realises that Tewkesbury is the subject of a conspiracy that wants to prevent him from taking his seat in the House of Lords before a crucial vote that would expand the franchise to ordinary people.

The film is based not on the works by Arthur Conan Doyle, but on the series of young adult novels started in 2006 by American author Nancy Springer. Furthermore, the film was produced not only by Netflix but also by its main star, Millie Bobby Brown, who had been at the height of popularity due to her highly acclaimed role as Eleven in Stranger Things.

Directed by Harry Bradbeer, Enola Holmes on a strictly superficial level functions as an interesting, and at the very beginning, promising mix of period mystery, adventure, and light family-oriented comedy. The film features a relatively large budget that is successfully spent on the reconstruction of Victorian England, offering a visually appealing backdrop for the unfolding drama. However, the film’s success relies heavily on the performance of its lead.

Millie Bobby Brown pours her mind and soul into the project, and she is clearly aware that she alone carries the film. Henry Cavill, who is supposed to be the bigger star and playing the more iconic character, is strangely subdued and his character is surprisingly passive throughout much of the runtime. Instead, Brown firmly establishes herself as a free-spirited, resourceful protagonist who also serves as the film’s narrator. She uses the breaking of the fourth wall to directly address the audience, and Bradbeer’s rapid flashback editing is employed to provide as much exposition in as short a time as possible, allowing the audience to concentrate on the action rather than the narrative setup.

The action scenes are well-done, yet the protagonist is shown as vulnerable; unlike many modern-day Hollywood "woke" films that insist on making female protagonists physically superior to male antagonists, Enola Holmes keeps Brown grounded. She has to resort to wit to ultimately defeat them. The film is also notable for a degree of violence that might not be that suitable for the youngest of audience, particularly in the final confrontation.

Yet, all these efforts can’t compensate for the fact that the film is actually promoting "wokery" to absurd levels that were becoming the norm in Hollywood years ago, especially in the case of Netflix. Enola Holmes—a character that never appeared in Doyle’s original work—is reimagined as a feminist icon, and her mother, who doesn’t appear much in the film, is portrayed as a heroic feminist freedom fighter. This apparently isn’t enough for the filmmakers, who introduced an entire militant feminist underground in Victorian London. This underground also involves a jiujitsu school for women held by Edith, a black woman played by Susan Wokoma. During their encounter, Edith even scolds Sherlock Holmes for his unwillingness to adapt to new progressive ways.

The script by Jack Thorne goes even more explicitly political, linking Enola’s quest with progressive causes so dear to Hollywood’s heart, and especially relevant during the US presidential election year when the film was released. The villains in the film are clearly associated with the English conservative establishment, and the conspiracy that Enola is about to defeat is linked with the passage of the 1884 Reform Act, which expanded the franchise in England and Wales. By framing the struggle as a battle for democracy against aristocratic hoarding of power, the script essentially turns a period thriller into a soapbox for modern liberal values.

This also means that the actual historicity of the plot is thrown out the window due to a number of anachronisms. For instance, a motor car used by Miss Harrison appears on the road despite the fact that the first practical motor cars were not invented in Germany until two years after the Reform Bill was passed. There is, of course, the spectacle not only of the streets of Victorian London but also of the pupils of a presumably elite boarding school displaying modern era racial diversity. This looks not only anachronistic but, in terms of being formulaic, it ruins any suspension of disbelief, making the audience too aware that they are watching a Netflix film rather than a Victorian mystery adventure.

And even without the political context, Enola Holmes is disappointing because the combination of narration and rapid flashbacks soon becomes tiresome and repetitive. The mystery itself isn’t much to write home about, and the characters are largely one-dimensional. Either they are utterly passive like Sherlock, or they are turned into less than intelligent semi-antagonists like Mycroft, who has actually been described as smarter than Sherlock in Doyle’s work. There is also an issue of pacing that makes Enola Holmes—with its two-hour runtime—slightly overlong. The film would have been much better if edited into a more digestible hour-and-a-half format.

Despite those flaws, Enola Holmes turned out to be popular enough to spawn two sequels—Enola Holmes 2 in 2022 and Enola Holmes 3 in 2026. Originally slated for a theatrical release, the film was streamed on Netflix during the COVID-19 crisis, capitalising on the superhero fatigue that had set in during that period. While it is an entertaining watch for those who enjoy the "female lead detective" genre, it suffers from a heavy-handed script and a reliance on political messaging that often overshadows the mystery at its core.

RATING: 4/10 (+)

IMDb link

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