GIVEN that it was Netflix that made a star of Millie Bobby Brown, it seems entirely appropriate that she should launch her first great project on the streaming service.
Based on the first in Nancy Springer’s book series of the same name, Enola Holmes comes produced by the young Brit herself and stamped heavily with her unique flair and charm. It was Brown’s inspiration to translate the book, which she had read with her sister as a child, to screen and she who instructed writer Jack Thorne that her Enola should break the fourth wall. The film is, then, a very different beast than those of the Holmes family’s more renowned sibling but enjoys a freshness of spirit that proves all the better for it.
An invention of Stringer, rather than Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle, Enola Holmes is the two decades younger sister of Sherlock and Mycroft, here played by Henry (Superman) Cavill and Sam Claflin respectively. As her brothers set out for illustrious lives in London, film and book alike find Enola brought up a force to be reckoned with by their widowed mother Eudoria (Helena Bonham Carter). In the face of stringent Victorian societal norms. Enola breaks the mould. Accomplished in jujitsu, she’s fearsome with a tennis racket, whip smart at word games and a force to be reckoned with on the chess board. Cycling, on the other hand, not so much.
When, on her 16th birthday, Enola wakes to find her mother unexpectedly vanished, she quickly determines to track her down. Only the sharp arrival of her elder brothers stands in her way. Cavill makes for an unusual Holmes. More emotional than as portrayed by the likes of Benedict Cumberbatch and Jeremy Brett. Less acerbic and sharp around the edges too. It’s no wonder the Conan Doyle estate are suing the production.
It is, instead, Claflin’s Mycroft who kicks up a stink. He wants Enola shipped off to finishing school, softened, chastened and readied for marriage. Again, an odd shift from Conan Doyle’s original characterisation.
Yet, we must remember these are not the tales of Conan Doyle but instead Springer. Taken on its own terms, then, Enola Holmes is rather splendid. Funny, sweet and full of spirit. I got a touch of Nancy Drew and more than a fair helping of BBC hit series Fleabag.
Enola Holmes is on Netflix now.
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