Enola Holmes

Tedious, self-aware/feminist hogwash mixed with a nice kids’ detective storyline that's slightly reminiscent of Harry Potter. Enola Holmes is blessed with a pleasant cast, but unfortunately the directing makes it difficult to find your bearings in the plot, occasionally leading the viewer up blind alleys where they run up against a brick wall, wondering if they missed something. Otherwise, it's a tasty TV snack whose most interesting aspect is Cavil’s Sherlock. (23/09/2020)

A formally interestingly conceived blend between a naive fairytale about a girl running away from the dominant male order of the Victorian era and a coming-of-age crime drama where the heroine is forced to exploit her innate talent in a Young Sherlock Holmes style. The playful self-aware approach is very entertaining and original at times, while the detective line effectively applies Doyle’s narrative intuition, leading the attention through the deciphering of hidden meanings. What it’s clearly lacking, however, is more balance and zest – the formal tricks soon become predictable and, despite everything, the established format lacks a moment of surprise. It’s also missing the charisma of Sherlock himself, I liked Cavill’s portrayal a lot and it’s a shame that he becomes such a passive character. Millie is of course lovely and carries everything on her shoulders with a cuteness that best characterises the concept as a whole. It’s not as smoothly written and doesn’t have the adult humour of 1980s Spielberg, but it’s nice and contagious in its own way. So, 70%. (23/09/2020)

Where exactly did Enola come from? I almost feel like it is some kind of a weapon of contemporary feminists and a statement that every Sherlock has his own Enola. It nicely reacts to one episode of Red Dwarf in which William Shakespeare was made into Wilma Shakespeare. And that joke is more than 20 years old. Moreover it is a pity that this movie isn’t at least funny. Millie is surely great and she enjoys her role a lot. That shouldn’t come as a surprise given that she financed it herself as probably the youngest Hollywood producer of today at the age of 16. But she should have left out the sarcastic comments addressed directly to the camera. After watching the movie I couldn’t figure out what it was all about. So at the end of the day my expectation wasn’t fulfilled and Netflix disappoints me once again. (27/09/2020)

If it weren't for the irritatingly boring and unnecessarily drawn out exposition, this would almost be a full 3 stars. The final impression is more like a 2 and a half stars. Millie Bobby Brown is quite distinctive though, and outshines both Henry Cavill and Helena Bonham Carter in terms of acting. Overall, this is an interesting would-be extension of the global "Sherlock universe", in which the sister of the famous detective shows a fair amount of wit and general intellect. Moreover, Enola is seen here as a relatively empathetic and almost morally benign personality, something that is often problematic with Sherlock himself. I enjoyed the creative intent of inserting a purely female character into an already existing literary-filmic world of strong male characters to compete for the viewer's attention and, in a somewhat "Dickinsonian" way, show defiance. But if you are expecting a "Sherlockian" detective story, you will be disappointed. Enola Holmes is typical Netfix consumer material, with no special surprises apart from the story itself. (19/10/2020)

Millie’s awesome in this one. I truly mean that. The only virtues of this spectacle are the spontaneity of her acting together with Henry Cavill’s pleasantly subdued, charming Sherlock  and the cinematography, which is unusually lavish for a Netflix production. As for the rest of it, however, stay away from this in-your-face politically correct fable which tries hard to be woke. I certainly don’t have any qualms about the feminist movement, but this is too much “out of joint”; I always find it rather daft and removed from contemporary reality whenever female characters set in the 19th century fight like men or want to fight like men. The net result is merely a political statement by today’s Hollywood studios, of the kind that has become fashionable these days. (23/09/2020)