“Enola Holmes” film review

By: Keaton Marcus

Harry Bradbeer has come t0 save the Sherlock Holmes universe with a massive breath of fresh air. Enola Holmes is a spin-off about Sherlock’s rebellious teen sister Enola, who’s portrayed by Millie Bobby Brown with ferocious energy and spirit, making her mark in the cinematic franchise. Brown is joined with quite the talented cast, including Henry Cavill as the great detective, Sam Claflin as his cantankerous brother, and Helena Bonham Carter as their mother. Despite the odd casting choice for the hulking Cavill to play such a character, he turns up the charm and never brings it back down. He’s perhaps my favorite portrayal, at least better than whatever Will Ferrell was trying to do with it. The entire cast is so involved with the project, so committed that you really feel you’re in the world. Nothing feels off, or even fake, the costume design is top-notch, and they’ve actually hired a real British cast. Sorry, Robert Downey Jr. Above all, this is a film we all needed, an uplifting, heartwarming and charming picture that breezes through a couple fun action sequences, and plenty of humor.

Enola also breaks the fourth wall constantly, which was Bradbeer’s signature move in his acclaimed series Fleabag. This is how we’re told about her childhood, well, some of it. She explains that her mother, Eudoria, named her Enola because backwards it spells “alone”. Nice name, eh? The two have been inseparable her whole life, doing with Mycroft’s mansion as they please. That means playing tennis, wrestling, and breaking objects to all contempt. So why’d she name her such a way? It’s because Brown’s new character has always got along well on her own, the issue is, she’s never been accustomed to the real world, kept with her mother till her teen years. This is when she wakes up on her sixteenth birthday only to find that Eudoria’s gone mysteriously missing, and it’s Enola on the case. There is one problem, though. Mycroft won’t have it, he’s determined into forcing the girl into a school that’ll teach her to be a “lady”.

As she tries to outsmart her brothers, Enola becomes quite the detective as she saves Lord Tewkesberry from falling off a train. It turns out that she suspects that his uncle is sending an assassin after him. The duo join together to solve everything. Bradbeer is such a talented director…He’s helmed Killing Eve, the aforementioned Fleabag, and a few more big hits on television. His spin-off goes straight to Netflix perfectly, as it’s a movie not big enough to be worth it to see in theaters, and rather fits perfectly on the streaming platform. It may be a tad long, running over two hours, but for the most part, you’ve never seen time go by so fast. It’s a fantastic adventure for kids, and gives a surprisingly nice, feministic message to young girls without being to preachy. Fortunately, Brown’s character isn’t a Mary Sue, an issue with many strong females we see in the cinemas today. In fact, she’s an ordinary girl, and I loved to watch her solve cases, and kick butt.

Who ever thought Millie Bobby Brown could do fight choreography? I knew she was a fantastic actress from Stranger Things, but in the few action sequences in this thing, I’d love to see her in more of this stuff. She was sadly sidelined in her first feature role Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and this is her first true leading part in a film, and God does she pull it off. With seemingly boundless excitement, she in injects new life into the universe almost flawlessly in a movie with very few problems. Her chemistry with Louis Partridge, who portrays Tewkesberry, makes for a great new teen romance for fans to ship all they want. She’s got everything we needed from such a hero, and this rising actress is truly starting to take over the world. With around 35 million followers on Instagram at 16 years old, she’s grown an empire of die-hard fans from her stunning debut in the Duffer Brothers’ hit series.

There are the few issues I have with the movie as well. For example, it could have been told with greater depth in terms of character. I found the more intimate scenes fantastic, but the people themselves seemed a bit one-dimensional. Additionally, the fourth-wall breaking doesn’t always land, and the ones that don’t really made me cringe….Otherwise, I found them adorable. That is literally it, the rest of the movie was a perfectly innocent, enjoyable British adventure with plenty of entertainment value to truly hit it home despite its running time. I’m not sure if Enola Holmes will be popular enough to drive in a sequel, as it currently holds number two on Netflix’s top 10, behind their mediocre Ratched. Anyway, if the another movie does happen, I’ll be the first to watch.

The final opinion is: Despite a lack of grit, Enola Holmes is a family-friendly adventure with energetic, effervescent performances, fun action and tons of humor to make for a movie we never knew we needed….$PLURGE IT

"Enola Holmes" Breathes Fresh Air Into a Tired Franchise, and Gives us a Refreshing New Lead

“Enola Holmes” film review

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