Enola Holmes
Directed by
Harry Bradbeer
Writing Credits (in alphabetical order)
Nancy Springer … (novel)
Jack Thorne … (screenplay)
Produced by
Harry Bradbeer … executive producer
Millie Bobby Brown … producer
Paige Brown … producer
Michael Dreyer … executive producer
Alex Garcia … producer (p.g.a.)
Ali Mendes … producer (p.g.a.)
Mary Parent … producer (p.g.a.)
Music by Daniel Pemberton
Millie Bobby Brown … Enola Holmes
Henry Cavill … Sherlock Holmes
Sam Claflin … Mycroft Holmes
Helena Bonham Carter… Eudoria Holmes
Louis Partridge … Tewkesbury
Burn Gorman … Linthorn
Adeel Akhtar … Lestrade
Susan Wokoma … Edith
Hattie Morahan … Lady Tewkesbury
David Bamber … Sir Whimbrel
Frances de la Tour … The Dowager
Enola Holmes has its share of flaws. Set in the Sherlock Holmes universe, it has 21st century sensibilities that are jarring for 1880s London. Lestrade, played well by Adeel Akhtar, would not be a police inspector, even an incompetent one, in Sherlock’s London. Sherlock himself might notice this Lestrade only if he wanted his boots polished. Victorian literature is replete with what were then called ‘rebellious tomboys’ but there is just a bit too much of an element of grrrrl power to make Enola’s role convincing. There’s a fair number of anachronisms, and the motives of characters and plot devices often slop over into ridiculous. Eudoria Holmes (Helena Bonham Carter, channeling her role as Red Queen), mother to Sherlock, Mycroft and Enola, supposedly the three most intelligent people in all of England, is facing a political vote on women’s rights in the House of Lords, and apparently lacks the mental resources to address this vote other than by accumulating enough explosives to frighten Guy Fawkes. Mind you, I’m not saying blowing up the House of Lords is necessarily a bad idea—think of it as a necessary geronticide—but the matriarch of the Holmes clan couldn’t come up with a more politically effective plot device? The romantic tension between Enola and Lord Tewkesbury is overplayed, although it does have a credible ending.
What makes it worth watching is an utterly luminous performance by Millie Bobby Brown, who manages the neat trick of saying this is a film not meant to be taken very seriously while making it very clear we need to take her seriously as a producer and actor. Playing her role with an insouciant élan, she frequently breaks the fourth wall to make witty observations to the audience. The character is instantly likable and remains so through a series of snitfits and pouts. Another neat trick by Brown. The rest of the acting is solid even the ones, such as Akhtar or Henry Cavill, who were miscast. (Come on: Superman as Sherlock Holmes?). In that light, Carter’s Eudoria brings an agreeable measure of Burtonesque lunacy to the story. Brown, who also produced, managed to blend a lot of elements that should have failed and created an engaging and thoroughly enjoyable film.
Now on Netflix.