“But isn’t it time we stopped accepting in film criticism an anti-emotional, phony rationalism which we know to be not just harmful, but absurd, in any other context? Isn’t it time we plucked up our courage and allowed our hearts as well as our heads to go the pictures?”
Raymond Durgnat (Films and Feelings) 1971
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REVIEW: Enola Holmes
Inspired by the children's book series by Nancy Springer, Netflix's new film, Enola Holmes, turns the spotlight onto the younger sister of the famed detective as a new mystery thrusts her into an insidious conspiracy that compels her to take control of her own life and leave her own mark. The film's greatest achievement is reaffirming that lead actress Millie Bobby Brown of Stranger Things is indeed one of the most promising up and coming talents around and can seemingly step into any role with enthusiasm, but beyond that there's little about this film to celebrate.
Enola Holmes lives alone with her mother, Eudoria (Helena Bonham-Carter), away from the pursuits of her much older, much more accomplished older brothers--the snooty Mycroft (Sam Clafin) and the ever-charming, ever famous Sherlock (Henry Cavill). Enola enjoys the attention of her mother until Eudoria vanishes without warning. It is this disappearance that summons her older brothers back to the estate to see their little sister taken care of. Traditional Mycroft wants to see her initiated into a proper finishing school that will stamp out the eccentricities Enola has inherited from her mother, leaving Enola with no choice but to set off on an adventure to find her mother, and maybe herself as well.
Brown holds her own against more seasoned actors like Cavil and Clafin, which is unmistakable from her very first interaction with them. The dynamic between these three leads is vibrant but unfortunately unmatched by most of the remaining cast members, most notably Louis Partridge who plays the young viscount at the center of the sinister plot as well as Enola's love interest. Even the luminous Helena Bonham Carter feels oddly restrained in a surprisingly incidental role.
Inherent in a film about the unknown little sister of a literary icon such as Sherlock Holmes are feminist undertones. This film grabs onto those undertones and brings them to the forefront of this story. The surging movement for women's rights in late 19th century England serves as the backdrop for this young woman learning what she is capable of. And, for the most part, the movie is clever about how this female empowerment manifests itself. Here's a film where corsets and flowers are just another tool within our heroine's arsenal. The movie still calls out some forms of traditional femininity as inherently restrictive (finishing school is framed as purgatory) but the movie also isn't afraid to let Enola look beautiful in a dress.
Yet for a branch of the Sherlock Holmes mythology, the plotting of the film isn't terribly clever. Various topics and talking points are tossed out through expository dialogue, very few of them satisfactorily explored through action. Moreover, the plot is unfocused and incohesive. Enola answers the call to find out what happened to her mother, but her attention is quickly diverted by a mildly charming boy thrown into Lordship after the mysterious death of his father, leading to an entirely different plotline with only the most tenuous of links to Eudoria's disappearance.
More frustratingly Enola's place as the younger sister of the famous Sherlock Holmes plays almost no part in the narrative. The movie tries driving home a point about how Sherlock's pursuit of fame and excellence has made him neglectful of his family and especially Enola. Various characters call him out for having left her unsupported, claims which are made doubly confusing by the rapport he and Enola demonstrate so effortlessly, even early on in the film. One character reprimands Sherlock for not truly knowing his sister immediately after a scene wherein Enola effortlessly recounts intimate knowledge of her brother, his favorite meals and board games and such.
It's unmistakable that between her two brothers she much prefers Sherlock over Mycroft, but Mycroft's failings are never given the same weight for some reason. It's not as though there was no potential for any number of genuinely fascinating plot formations, but the film makes use of none of these, such that the film might have been cleaner without that distraction.
In the end, the film is a parade of Millie Bobby Brown's boundless talent that leaves a trail of intriguing but underdeveloped ideas struggling to keep up.
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