Enola Holmes - A Delightful Performance from Millie Bobby Brown as the Younger Sister of The Iconic Detective

There was a new movie that premiered on Netflix this week and after spending almost 3 weeks watching a total of 121 episodes of a famous TV series, I was happy to watch this one as it was from a totally different genre. Anyway let's get on with it.

Brief Story Line

Set in England during the Victorian time, Enola Holmes (Millie Bobby Brown - Stranger Things, Godzilla II: King of the Monsters etc) was the younger sister of the famous detective Sherlock (Henry Cavill - Mission: Impossible - Fall Out, The Witcher series etc) and their oldest brother Mycroft (Sam Claflin - Charlie's Angels 2019 version, Me Before You etc). Enola was raised only by their mother Eudoria (Helena Bonham Carter - Ocean's 8, The Lone Ranger etc) with unconventional teachings such as science, martial arts etc which made her did not really fit in the society at that time.

On her 16th birthday, Enola's mother disappeared and left her alone. With Mycroft only wanted Enola to be normal girl of her age and Sherlock did not seem to really care, she decided to take matters into her own hand & try to look for her mother. As she embarked on her journey, Enola met with a young future Lord Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge) who was in danger and later involved in the mystery surrounding him.

So what would happen to Enola and how would the story conclude? Find them all in this fun movie.

End of Brief Story Line

OK, as I said above after having spend some time on a rather heavy and emotional series, this movie was a welcome pleasure for me. The cheerful tone really made my day as the light story brightened my mood. The story was told from the point of view of our titular character with some humorous remarks and the use of fourth wall which was an intelligent choice. I also think that Millie Bobby Brown nailed this role perfectly with her performance. She was just so fun to watch in here. Side Note: she looks quite mature now and it worries me a bit whether she could still pull of playing Eleven in the next season of Stranger Things (although that would be a future problem).

I noticed during the closing credits, this movie was based on the novel titled The Enola Holmes Mysteries: The Case of the Missing Marquees written by Nancy Springer. It was the first of Enola Holmes series. So this was not based on the Sherlock Holmes series written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle which made me understand the different perspective. As Enola was the main character, Sherlock was more like a supporting and did not provide the usual intelligence as much as we would normally see in other adaptations of him. Btw, there was no mid or post end credit scenes.

The main appeal of this movie was obviously the performance of Millie Bobby Brown and the humorous take of her character. The mystery was not that difficult to solve and did not really provide a huge challenge for mystery lovers. Not a lot of surprising twists that would delight fans of mystery genre. Those who prefer more mature take might need to manage their expectations since our lead cast is a 16 year old girl after all with her adolescent problems and way of thinking despite all her intelligence. The movie did not have a spectacular ending where we would see the classic revealing of the case, which was a bit of a personal letdown though it could be understood seeing the case was not that complicated.

Aside from Millie, there were other quite well known names as well like Henry Cavill, Helena Bonham Carter and Sam Claflin, though being supporting cast made them did not stand out too much. There was also the famous Inspector Lestrade (performed by Adeel Akhtar - Murder Mystery etc) in here which should be a familiar name for Sherlock Holmes fans. In addition there were also Burn Gorman (Pacific Rim Uprising etc) as the mysterious Linthorn, Fiona Shaw (Killing Eve TV series, Harry Potter series etc) as Ms. Harrison and few others.

The Victorian setting in here was quite well done supported by the good job from the costumes department. The beautiful scenery from 19th century was brought to life nicely. The music was generally OK, but I did not notice any wonderful soundtrack. The film has a duration of 2 hours 3 minutes which surprisingly did not feel too long. Perhaps because it was not too heavy.

Overall this was a nice movie. Not too spectacular but entertaining enough. With such bright performance, it was hard not to like the movie, although for me personally I would have liked it better if the mystery would be a bit more challenging. Perhaps it would be so in the future movies. As it is adaptation of the first novel and if it's a huge success (which is quite likely as this one has a high critical rating), I believe it would be the start of a new franchise. For those interested in seeing someone other than Sherlock take the spotlight, this would be interesting choice. But if you prefer the usual Sherlock Holmes style movies, this might not suit you. The choice is yours.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars