Enola Holmes (2020)
Directed by Harry Bradbeer
While searching for her missing mother, intrepid teen Enola Holmes uses her sleuthing skills to outsmart big brother Sherlock and help a runaway lord.
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16 films that influenced Enola Holmes
What critics say influenced Enola Holmes
If “Enola Holmes” also reminds you at several points, especially in the action scenes, of the work of Steven Spielberg, you may recall that he executive produced the 1985 hit “Young Sherlock Holmes.”
From Robert Downey Jr.’s successful franchise to the BBC adaptation with Benedict Cumberbatch to 1985’s mystery-adventure film Young Sherlock Holmes , modern audiences always want more from the world’s most famous detective.
Adapting the first book from 2006, The Case of the Missing Marquess , prolific screenwriter Jack Thorne ( His Dark Materials , Harry Potter and the Cursed Child ) essentially combines Guy Ritchie’s stylised Sherlock Holmes movies with Young Sherlock Holmes (1985), replacing darkness and edginess with fun and feminism.
Written by Jack Thorne (“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child”) and based on Nancy Springer's young-adult books, “Enola” borrows certain aspects from the recent Robert Downey Jr. “Sherlock Holmes” movies and TV’s popular modern-day “Sherlock” with Benedict Cumberbatch, but thankfully it’s not a female-friendly reboot of 1985's “Young Sherlock Holmes.”
For fans of the Holmes character, his countless screen incarnations have also included "Young Sherlock Holmes" and Gene Wilder's comedic "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother."
Their argument: Henry Cavill's Sherlock showing emotion — or respecting women even — in the film Enola Holmes is a character trait he only developed in Doyle's later stories, which are not in the public domain and thus still fall under copyright law.
On the other hand, Brown (who could pass for “Sherlock” star Benedict Cumberbatch’s sister) brings some of the awkwardness we traditionally associate with the iconic detective to her role: Enola was never indoctrinated by her mother in the ways of polite society, and as such, she’s meant to represent female intellect in its natural, unrepressed state.
And this one imagines the consequences of Sherlock and Mycroft having an estranged teenage sister, Enola (Millie Bobby Brown), who’s ahead of her time when it comes to the fairer sex’s treatment in Victorian England…
Enola Holmes is not a carbon copy of Guy Ritchie’s big screen Sherlock Holmes films, but it boasts the same pithy, modernized light step.
Based on the series of novels of the same name by Nancy Springer, Enola Holmes puts the spotlight on Sherlock Holmes' little sister, a young woman every bit as clever and daring as the famous detective.
Despite making room for such bombast, “Enola Holmes” remains tamer and more tasteful in its high-energy storytelling than Guy Ritchie’s recent “Sherlock Holmes” movies, and considerably more fun than last year’s “Nancy Drew” reboot.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: It’s Nancy Drew meets Sense and Sensibility meets Suffragette .
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Onboard, she has a fun meet-cute with fellow semi-fugitive Lord Tewksbury (Louis Partridge, Paddington 2 ) and the first of several terrifying encounters with the henchman (an especially intimidating Burn Gorman) who’s out to kill the young nobleman.
Reliable British excellence is the foundation of the film: Fleabag director Bradbeer uses his comedy experience to bring out the best Waller-Bridge facial expressions in Bobby Brown, Daniel Pemberton produces a score full of personality and joy, Fiona Shaw and Burn Gorman are once again typecast as entertaining villains, and the train chase and bumbling Inspector Lestrade (Adeel Akhtar) are reminiscent of Paddington 2.
Lord Tewksbury (Louis Partridge; Paddington 2 ) not wanting to follow in the family's footsteps, leaves, and hides out on the train in the cabin Enola happens to be occupying.
When it’s not the vocal few who seemingly hate women in their universes (gag me) torpedoing a perfectly fine movie like 2016’s Ghostbusters, then it’s those wanting a particular kind of female representation bemoaning not getting original characters, à la the conversation around Ocean’s 8. It’s a no-win situation unless everyone chills out and lets people have their fun, which is hopefully the spirit people bring to Enola Holmes.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: It’s Nancy Drew meets Sense and Sensibility meets Suffragette .
And frankly, it makes the Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes movies and Kenneth Branagh’s oddly popular Murder on the Orient Express reboot look even more like the snoozefests they are.
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Factor in the Consolata Boyle’s (The Queen) elaborate costumes and Michael Carlin’s (Colette) transporting production design and Enola Holmes becomes a visual treat.
There is a lively and jaunty score provided by Daniel Pemberton (who incidentally provided the scores for Ritchie’s Man From UNCLE and King Arthur films).