Enola Holmes On Netflix: the entertaining film with Millie Bobby Brown that combines suspense and adventure
In addition to the visibly well-presented ensemble, above all the wonderful Millie Bobby Brown from Netflix's Stranger Things, it is above all the playful narrative style that attracts not only crime readers but also the young audience for Enola Holmes.
Enola Holmes gives Sherlock a makeover on Netflix
Before Netflix's Enola Holmes, there was, of course, Sherlock Holmes: when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle breathed life on paper into his British master detective in 1886, he probably would never have dreamed that more than 130 years later his private investigator would be the epitome of the detective.
Enola Holmes at Netflix is now based on the first book in the 6-part novel series by Nancy Springer: The Fall of the Lost Lord. Even if the heroine knows how to assert herself with self-confidence in the young adult book as in the Netflix film adaptation, the reputation of her genius is of course still fed by the reputation of her world-famous brother. Of course, she wants to outstrip that.
It is easy to tell what Enola Holmes is about: Enola's mother (Helena Bonham Carter), who raised the girl in the country far from social rules, disappears on her 16th birthday.
Then her adult brothers Sherlock (Henry Cavill) and Mycroft (Sam Claflin) appear and want to deport the young people to boarding school. However, the young detective goes off and searches for the lost parent herself. On her trip, she also helps a young man from the nobility (Louis Partridge) in distress.
Everyone can decide for themselves which are the best Sherlock Holmes films . What is certain, however, is that the ingenious snoop's popularity has not diminished with regular new films and series. Enola Holmes is a kind of spin-off in extra time.
Enola Holmes casts a spell over us on Netflix through modern narrative
Sherlock, embodied by Benedict Cumberbatch, brought Doyle's modernized fictional character a celebrated comeback from 2010. Transported into the present, the series awakened new joy in the old fabric with its modernization. The cast knew how to inspire and the individual feature-length episodes were characterized by a rapid narrative style with additional elements injected into the picture.
Enola Holmes now obviously wants to repeat this feat. Because even if Netflix's story is set back in the 19th century, the story is unmistakably contemporary and bursting with energy.
When Millie Bobby Brown breaks through the fourth wall and communicates with her audience, the Fleabag fan inevitably thinks of Phoebe Waller- Bridge's self-confident heroine with a smile. Even just before drowning, she still has a wink for us. (Incidentally, Harry Bradbeer was also the director of all the episodes there.)
The fact that, as a young woman far from Victorian stereotypes, Enola Holmes is not a virgin in distress, but is instead allowed to save a lord-in-distress, fits seamlessly into the picture. But even this "useless boy" later reveals his important right to exist. Netflix understands teenagers.
Whether Millie Bobby Brown dresses up as a boy or appears in a ball gown: The incredibly talented Stranger Things star could probably tell us the whole film just by himself and that would still be entertaining, exciting and moving.
Enola Holmes is incredibly entertaining, even if Netflix is looking at something longer
Due to the hooking narrative and these playful additions, the 2-hour running time of Enola Holmes should not seem very long even to viewers with a short attention span.
Only at the very end does the Netflix film feel a little longer than necessary, which is probably because there is a breath of air here for potential sequels. A sequel of this cheeky and entertaining story would definitely be welcomed.
So it's fitting that the last episode of Benedict Cumberbatch's series Sherlock (season 4, episode 3) itself introduced the otherwise rather unknown character of Enola Holmes in 2017. In any case, the handover of the Sherlock baton was successful with this latest Netflix entry. Gladly more of it.
Four novels and 56 short stories gave life, in the middle of the Victorian era, to Sherlock Holmes, the literary detective most seen in film and TV. The same one who today gives up his place on the screen to his fictitious younger sister, Enola Holmes.
A lively character that was not conceived by Conan Doyle but by the American Nancy Springer, who in the XXI century - long after the time of the Sherlock investigations - devised this teenager who today stars in her own film on Netflix, Enola Holmes.
A feature film produced and headed by Millie Bobby Brown - better known as Eleven from Stranger things - that begins in the late 19th century, when Enola (Brown) lives with her mother, Eudora ( Helena Bonham Carter ), in a large house in the English countryside.
But the same day that the young girl turns 16, during which she has grown up under the guidance of her liberal mother, the latter disappears, forcing her to contact her almost unknown older brothers: Mycroft ( Sam Claflin ) and Sherlock ( Henry Cavill ).
And while the latter focuses on searching for clues that will help find the matriarch of the Holmes family, Mycroft decides to become his younger sister's tutor and worry that she receives the proper education for a young lady her age.
Faced with the possibility of losing her freedom, Enola decides to escape from home with the game to decipher clues and the money left by her mother. Determined to get to London, she leaves false clues about how she escaped her brothers and takes a train disguised as a boy.
Onboard this one, she meets another young man who escaped from his family, Viscount Tewkesbury, Marquis of Basilwether (Louis Partridge), who was chased by an assassin; as Enola soon discovers and leads them both to abandon the moving train.
A risky outing that forces them to walk to London through the countryside and share a few hours, during which Enola introduces herself as an atypical girl, who instead of embroidering knows how to fight and her companion reveals her less aristocratic side.
But in the city, they separate paths and the youngest of the Holmes changes her appearance, betting that her brothers will never find her if she dresses like a lady, to later look for accommodation and begin to follow the clues she has about Eudora.
In parallel, Mycroft turns to Scotland Yard and Inspector Lestrade (Adeel Akhtar) to find Enola's whereabouts, while Sherlock tries the same, but trusting in the sagacity that has made him a legend of the investigation.
Thus, with the adolescent Enola Holmes worried about the fate of her mother, as well as that of the young Viscount, and her brothers in their incessant search, a two-hour story is being formed that never loses effectiveness or entertainment.
This thanks to the rhythm of her narration, where the scenes in which Enola displays her intellectual and physical talent are key -where she resorts to the self-defence teachings that her mother gave her-, in addition to the unusual way in which she tells her story.
For which the character breaks with the so-called fourth wall, which divides the actors from the audience, and addresses the viewer directly, making him a participant in his experiences and even asking him for advice on how he should behave in certain situations.
A method used in other films and series, but which in Enola Holmes becomes an essential ingredient to make his shrewd heroine even more empathetic, adding to the charm that an effective Millie Bobby Brown manages to impress on each scene.
All that is complemented by a good cast and the view that the film offers on women's rights, becoming an unmissable bet for young people and families, which may well be the opening chapter of a successful film saga.