Enola Holmes

Enola spelled backward is “alone.” Eudoria (Helena Bonham Carter) raised her daughter (Millie Bobby Brown) to be an independent, freethinking woman. Enola Holmes is also pretty good at defending herself in a fight. Just as the mind of every Disney heroine of the past 30 years has been implanted with a progressive identity, this 19th-century English woman likewise promotes the feminist ideology of our current era. Mother Eudoria is an activist in the women’s suffrage movement. That would explain Eudoria’s decision to raise her daughter in this manner. However why Eudoria doesn’t reveal her passion for this political cause to Enola is a mystery.

Ok so granted, Enola has a personality that seems a bit anachronistic. She may push boundaries and resist social norms but she remains witty, graceful, and even demure when called upon to be. A remarkable creature that can be all things to all people. Enola is the teen sister of the much older Sherlock Holmes (Henry Cavill) and his stern brother Mycroft (Sam Claflin). They both left home years ago and so it is now just Enola and her mother. On her fourteenth birthday, Eudoria disappears and it’s up to Enola to figure out what happened.

This enjoyable chronicle is based on The Enola Holmes Mysteries. The series of young adult books by author Nancy Springer has been adapted by screenwriter Jack Thorne. The Case of the Missing Marquess is the first novel published in 2006 and the basis for this film. The search for Enola’s absent mother occupies her pursuit at first. Then she meets the young Viscount Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge) who is pursued by a bowler hat-wearing assassin (Burn Gorman). They eventually part ways but the fear that his life is in danger continues to vex her. She may outwardly dismiss him as a “useless boy” but her obsession with Tewkesbury betrays reality. She’s deeply smitten by the man…..and he needs her help. What is the male equivalent of a damsel in distress anyway?

The production is an amiable romp filled with various escapades. However, it’s slightly undone by excessive length. There’s a focus change halfway through this meandering story that is bizarre. Instead of continuing to search for Mom, she abruptly decides to track down Tewkesbury in order to save him first. The narrative is episodic and the ending promises more exploits in the future. It’s clear that this is positioned as the introduction to a much larger film franchise. Normally I eye-roll at such blatant commercialism but this is one of the rare times — in recent memory anyway — where I greeted the idea with enthusiasm. I was broadly entertained by what I saw.

The mystery captivated me. Enola Holmes manages to combine Victorian-era costumes and style with a very modern revisionist sensibility toward adventure. This may be the world that Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about but Nancy Springer’s fan fiction interpretation is a new and entertaining creation. Enola is a detective like her brother. Actress Millie Bobby Brown adds so much to this tale. She rises above the character’s conventionally unconventional personality and becomes a charming and delightful presence.

09-23-20