Enola Holmes Review

This review comes from my Letterboxd profile, where I review whatever movies I watch.

You know what? This movie managed to surprise me. I thought Enola Holmes was going to be another stereotypical Netflix movie that was good, but nothing particularly memorable. However, I gotta say, I debated giving this 4.5 stars not necessarily because I think it deserves that score on its merit, but because it rises above and beyond what I think most people associate with a Netflix film nowadays. This movie feels like it has its own particular style and energy, and it felt really fresh because of that. If it were released in theaters, I'd probably be harsher on it, but for a movie released on Netflix, this is actually a very pleasant surprise.

To start, Millie Bobby Brown is absolutely fantastic as the title character. She's spunky, she's clever, she's capable of holding her own, she's a really fun likable presence for the audience to relate to. It's clear from the get-go that this isn't a typical Sherlock Holmes adaptation: I mean, that was probably clear from when this movie was announced, a film based off of a contemporary novel that created an original protagonist and shifted the focus of the story from simply solving cases to letting a young woman have the spotlight and spinning the discrimination towards women during that time on its head. It's clear how different of an adaptation this was, and while I will admit there are times where the film goes too over the top with its message, I overall think it did a great job of making a Sherlock Holmes story convey a message about women's rights that doesn't feel forced or like an add-on. It's not just an important message, it's important to the development of the story and the characters, and that's what I think so many movies and TV shows nowadays completely miss the mark on. Maybe the message felt too heavy-handed for some, but in my opinion, this movie handled it really well.

Because this is an atypical adaptation of Sherlock Holmes, though, it took me a while to get used to Henry Cavill as the famous detective. It wasn't that he was doing a bad or even iffy job, it was that the movie at first didn't give him a ton of lines to work with. By the end, though, I think this movie finds a way to allow Sherlock to have his moments while also still keeping the focus of the story and the message on Enola, and I thought Cavill was overall charming as the character (although it's definitely not my favorite performance of that character, by any means). Sam Clafin also does a great job hamming it up as Mycroft, Louis Partridge is a very charming new presence as the young Viscount Teuksbery, and come on, how can you go wrong with Helena Bonham Carter, even if she's given a minor or role or stars in a bad movie? As I mentioned earlier, Harry Bradbeer's direction and Jack Thorne's script feel just unique and charming enough to work wonders and give each character (and particularly Enola) their time to shine, and I actually really liked the way this movie handled the main character breaking the fourth wall to tell her story to the audience. We can imagine it almost as sort of an inner monologue to herself, and I really liked that.

No, this movie isn't perfect, it's still fairly predictable in places, it still cops out at a couple of points that I don't think it should have, the pacing of the last half hour definitely felt like it dragged a bit just to get to the two hour mark, and it doesn't go above and beyond in creating a new Sherlock Holmes story. That being said, Enola Holmes is still a really fun, charming movie with likable characters, really fun action sequences, and stylistic direction and writing that make this movie stand out from every other typical Netflix film I've seen. The performances are charming, the story is fun (even if it doesn't focus on the mystery element as much), Daniel Pemberton's score is also very welcome, and overall, I had a total blast with Enola Holmes. If you're looking for a fun Sherlock Holmes story, I think you'll find something to enjoy about this movie.

Letter Grade: A-