Review: Enola Holmes

"Being alone, you never have to be lonely"

"Enola Holmes" is an adventure movie starring Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, Sam Claflin and Helena Bonham Carter. It was directed by Harry Bradbeer and written by Jack Thorne, who previously wrote the screenplay for "Wonder" and "Radioactive". The story follows Enola Holmes (Millie Bobby Brown), sister of Sherlock (Henry Cavill) and Mycroft (Sam Claflin) and a bright and independent 16-year old who goes searching for her mother (Helena Bonham Carter).

We see solid performances by all the actors. Nothing too special, but not bad either. I did have the feeling though that Millie Bobby Brown's character was inconsistent in her mannerisms and way of speaking at times. She often seemed very modern and not suitable for the time the movie is supposed to take place in (heads-up: this comes from a history noob) but that might have been the writing.

The writing was boring to me. In a 128 minutes movie, not much is happening, so one could have easily shorten it to a good 90 minutes. I for one, found myself not caring for any of the characters except for the coffee shop owner maybe. Henry Cavill's character does get more likeable throughout the movie and Sam Claflin successfully stays dislikable until the end. There are a lot of narrating sequences and the protagonist breaks the fourth wall quite often, which makes the story really messy at times and destroys the mood of several scenes. I'm assuming it does make acting for Millie Bobby Brown easier though, since she didn't have to act and instead could just say whatever it was she was supposed to feel in the scene. The filmmakers chose to do a lot of flashback sequences explaining the plot, so the editing is very fast-paced. This works quite well for most of the time but also leads to a very messy storyline.

Nonetheless, the movie sets a great mood. Visually the filmmakers did a great job. Aside from some dull VFX shots, the scenery is very well chosen and a lot of trajectory shots over beautiful landscapes make the movie very visually appealing. The costume and production design give the right feel while the score by Daniel Pemberton (Ocean's Eight) underlines the movie perfectly and makes it sound well-rounded.

All in all, "Enola Holmes" is a fun family movie with comedic aspects and an important message. The visuals and music make up for the issues in the story and make it a tolerable watch.  

Observations & (Fun) Facts

Everytime someone says Mycroft Holmes, it sounds a like Minecraft and when the name appears on screen I could only read Microsoft

I think they filmed on the same location as "The Favourite" did, but couldn't find anything on that

A lot of the crew has worked on "Radioactive"