Movie Review: From Corset To Codes, Enola Holmes Is An Investigation Of Victorian Patriarchy

Enola Holmes, starring Millie Bobby Brown as the notorious sister of the world’s most popular detective Sherlock Holmes, is now streaming on Netflix. The opening montage has our 16-year-old protagonist Enola introduce herself directly to us, her audience, by using the Fleabag-esque trope of breaking the fourth wall. As a result, she also breaks the glass ceiling of being dependent on someone (not even the narrator) to chronicle her identity for her. And with this very first scene, director Harry Bradbeer hands over all the agency, literally even the camera, over to Enola. What we see next over 123 minutes is her embarking on multiple missions— to find her mother, escape her brothers, save her friend and live life on her own terms.

Adapted from Nancy Springer’s novel The Case of the Missing Marquess: An Enola Holmes Mystery, the film features a stellar cast consisting of Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, Sam Claflin, Helena Bonham Carter and Louis Partridge. And what a fabulous job these stars have done. The film’s plot-line, at certain times, goes back-and-forth between being too much and too less, yet it becomes such an intriguing watch because of the shades these actors bring to their characters' personalities. Millie Bobby Brown delivers a performance so fantastic, that it’s her energy and charm that carries most of the film, and it’s nearly impossible not to root for her. The film also stars Susan Wokoma, Adeel Akhtar, Fiona Shaw and Frances De La Tour in pivotal roles. The screenplay, set in the year 1884, has been written by Jack Throne, while the Emmy-winning director Harry Bradbeer is in the director’s chair.

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About The Plot

The quirky Enola has grown up alone in the country with her enigmatic widowed mother, Eudoria (Helena Bonham Carter) while her two brothers lived a life away in the city. Eudoria, in an attempt to raise her daughter as an empowered woman, homeschooled her in science, literature and martial arts instead of teaching her embroidery and cooking. But one day, Enola’s world falls apart when Eudoria goes missing. As a result, her brothers, the government official Mycroft Holmes and the famed detective Sherlock Holmes, are called back to the estate. Mycroft is scandalised by his sister’s boisterous nature and decides to “make her acceptable for society”. And thence commences her training. But the younger Holmes sibling turns out to be as smart, if not smarter, than her brothers and she manages to fool them and run away. And from there begins Enola’s one-woman-journey to find her mother.

On the way she also meets a runaway lord, Viscount Lord Tewksbury (Louis Partridge). As the country searches for Tewksbury and Enola for her mother, the two plotlines converge to bring our protagonist face to face with the women’s suffrage movement. That’s right, we are set in an England that is on the cusp of change, with an expansion of voting rights being decided in the House of Lords. And Enola Holmes, in stark contrast to the rather apolitical Sherlock Holmes saga, decides to converge around the stakes of democracy, including the work of suffragists fighting for widespread representation. Consequently, we slowly start to realise that the film is not an average detective story, instead, it’s a deeper investigation of power, familial bonds and the risks of changing a world determined to stay the same.

The beauty of Enola Holmes is in how it fiercely it sets out to revise the mythology of one of history’s most iconic characters, Sherlock Holmes.

A Refreshing Extension Of The Sherlock Homes Saga

Sam Claflin as Sherlock Holmes is an apt casting choice, for the actor balances the detective’s infamous arrogance with an emerging softer side never seen before. And we see this Sherlock taking a backseat while the screenplay celebrates courageous women, born ahead of their time. Not just that, the film subtly also lays bare the limitations of original Sherlock Holmes saga, which presented a rational and a rather unemotional detective-hero, and attempts to re-invent Holmes for the current generation.

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In one scene Eudoria’s friend Edith (Susan Wokoma) takes a jab Sherlock for his complacency. She points out that the consulting detective is famously neutral about politics—and hasn’t helped his sister as much as he should have—because the world at current is made for men like him. “You haven’t any hope of understanding any of this. Because you don’t know what it is to be without power. Politics doesn’t interest you because you have no interest in changing the world that suits you so well”, she chastises the detective, while simultaneously criticising the shortcoming of Doyle’s ahistorical storytelling.

What works even better is that there are hints of change in Sherlock’s personality after this incident, one which might feel indistinct given that the makers could definitely not portray Sherlock as overtly tender (there is already a copyright infringement lawsuit going on in which the Conan Doyle Estate Ltd has sued the filmmakers for showing Sherlock Holmes as 'emotional'). But in the hands of a stupendous actor like Claflin, Sherlock becomes a rather likeable elder brother by the end of the film.

Where The Film Scores

The film sets itself apart in many ways. Firstly, the women in the film are refreshingly independent and are driven by a zeal to make the world a better place for their daughters. Both the plight and passion of radical suffragists towards their movement is perfectly captured, with Eudoria’s action constantly reminding one of the likes of Pankhurst sisters. It also shows black women as leading figures who lent their hands to the suffrage movement, and this inclusion of actors of colour throughout the film further demonstrates how preposterous and unacceptable all-white Victorian ensembles are in the first place.

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Gender is explored in interesting ways throughout the film. Enola alternates between dressing up as a boy and a girl as suits the situation. Though she identifies as a girl, her willingness to shift fluidly back-and-forth shows how the freedom to explore one’s own identity can inspire confidence. Neither Enola nor the film makes a judgement on either gender, simply shifting to fit the protagonist’s needs in the moment and to feel comfortable in her own skin. In fact, not being limited by traditional gender stereotypes gives Enola a chance to actually weaponize these cliches for her own benefit. She dresses as a boy to go unnoticed, dolls up to escape detection and even disguises as a widow in order to make people too uncomfortable to pay her any mind. Enola becomes a genius at using peoples’ preconceptions to her advantage, leveraging their gender prejudices against them with surgical precision.

The Final Verdict

In terms of the plotline, the film could have done better. It relies so much on the charm of its characters that at certain points it forgets to stick to any of the central plotlines. Additionally, Enola’s faculties could have been put to better use than the simple anagrams and codes she is made to solve throughout the movie. The ending feels abrupt, but then rumours about possible prequels are already going around, so it's always possible that the answers lie in the future. Either way, Enola Holmes makes for a great watch, for it serves both as a popcorn flick and a thoughtful social commentary wrapped up tightly inside a world every detective fiction fan would love to be a part of.

Views expressed are the author’s own.