As a fan of Henry Cavill, Helena Bonham Carter and Millie Bobby Brown I instantly knew that I needed to see Enola Holmes, I'm also a fan of Sherlock Holmes (no not the Benedict Cumberbatch one) and love a good mystery. From a young age my sister and I would sit with my grandad and watch mysteries, westerns, murder and cold cases and this is where my love for mysteries grew thanks to him! There have been so many adaptations of Sherlock Holmes over the years so I'm kind of glad to see something a little different, you see the original Sherlock Holmes only ever had a brother who was Mycroft, in the BBC drama they created a sister for them called Eurus who has a number of different mental issues and is a murder. Enola however comes from The Enola Holmes Mysteries which is a series of books by American author Nancy Springer which implies there could more than one Enola Holmes movie, which I'm not mad about!
I actually had the chance to meet Helena Bonham Carter, she is such a charming a beautiful woman who told me she loved my name and that's always stuck with me as I got made fun of so much for my name at times. She is just as charming in film as she is in real life, I love that she expresses her personality even through acting and it's a huge reason why I'm a big fan of hers. As usual her energy shines in this movie and she fits the role like a glove much like the other choices in cast members. Henry Cavill seems to fit so many roles because of his demeanor, he has a way of charming the audience as Sherlock even if we don't see much of him within the movie, then we have Sam Claflin who plays Mycroft you will recognise him from The Hunger Games, due to him being quite serious and a little stuck up in this role he was able to pull it off with no problem, I loved seeing how much Enola wound him up when she wouldn't listen and he tried to keep so calm about it all.
I thought this was going to be a series when I first saw the trailer rather than a movie but they fit everything they needed to within 2 hours and 1 minute of the movie, Enola Holmes is a bright young girl who would love nothing more than to have a bit more freedom much like her two older brothers, her mother taught her a lot of things but unfortunately never taught her about the real world and what could await her outside of her home, still she was academically smart and it was clear she could look after herself. She was given this chance when her mother goes missing, she calls in the help of her two older brothers who haven't seen her since she was a young girl and you guessed it, it's both Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes who both view Enola in very different ways. Sherlock seems to enjoy Enola being around him and welcome her energy but Mycroft can't wait to be rid of her even though he is her ward.
The reason he is her ward is because Enola is considered too young to look after herself so Mycroft takes on the responsibility of her, he can see that she is her own person and does as she pleases and this is what worries him the most and makes him think she will not be accepted in society and decides to send her away to an all girls boarding school in the hopes of taming her. Obviously nothing will stop Enola and she does as she pleases even if it means defying her brother, and although he has her best interests at heart he doesn't accept her for the way she is where as Sherlock does, it's adorable to be honest! The director (Harry Bradbeer) had a great way of portraying female leads so Enola Holmes was no exception, choosing Millie to play the role added to her fun spirited character giving her more room to showcase what kind of actor she can be, if you're not aware Harry Bradbeer Is the director of Fleabag which has the same kind of feel as Enola Holmes putting female actors at the forefront of the story and seeing them talk to the audience directly into the camera.
Enola is much like Sherlock and their free spirit is what makes their interactions my favourite in the movie, he knows she will land on her feet but even Enola herself is discovering what she is capable and at the age of 16 she has a lot to learn. On her way to find her mum she bumps into a boy named Tewkesbury around her age who seems to be a run away, we learn pretty quickly that his family are looking for him but it's clear he doesn't want to be found. We see that the focus switches from Enola to Tewkesbury a lot and they're both in danger and of course Enola puts herself in harm's way to try and keep others safe. Seeing her character progression made me hope that there would be more of these movies to come, there is a lot of room for a female detective in the world of mysteries take and it's been a while since the likes of Veronica Mars, Jessica Fletcher and Jane Marple graced my screen (there are many more to add to that list).
I prefer mysteries set in older time periods such as the 1800's-1900's just because modern mystery isn't as interesting to me unless it's to do with cold cases and then I'm on board with them. The costumes for Enola Holmes were worn in the most random ways by both Enola and her mother, they would wear whatever they wanted for certain activities and not change into practical attire made for the activity which shows how free spirited they both were. Given the movie is set in the era of the suffragette's, feminism was a big part of the movie and story line, we eventually see Enola realising that her free spirited ways of dressing give her away too much so she decides to invest in clothes that would discourage others into clocking on to who she may be since there were posters up stating she was missing, if someone found her now she couldn't help Tewkesbury nor find her mother.
I have seen a lot of people sexualise the tension between Tewkesbury and Elona and I don't feel its right considering they are still very young, but what I can say is that they bounced off each other and were the perfect little team. They were both invested in helping one another even if Enola needed a little push to help Tewkesbury, they had a very mischievous way about them but still saw how worried and scared they were over their situation and found comfort that they both were considered lost and extremely vulnerable, this didn't stop them from pushing their way to their destinations though, each time outwitting the villains because they had the upper hand, them kids weren't clueless that's for sure!
I relished the movie so much that I have watched it 3 times now to see if I missed out any details, it's made me want to get back into Sherlock Holmes and as someone who isn't the biggest fan of the TV series with Benedict Cumberbatch that's saying something (please don't hate me I'm just not a fan of his). Enola's adventure is something I wish I could have gone on as a kid minus having to fight, she is going to inspired kids all over the world with her infectious mannerisms and attitude towards getting stuff done! The story was easy to follow and the camera work/ Millies interactions with characters took it to another level, if they do make these into a franchise I would like to see Enola and Sherlock work together.
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