Directed by Harry Bradbeer and based on the book series, The Enola Holmes Mysteries by Nancy Springer is the 2020 Netflix film, Enola Holmes. Millie Bobbie Brown stars as Enola Holmes, the 16-year-old sister of the already famous detective, Sherlock (Henry Cavill) and oldest brother, Mycroft (Sam Claflin), who is searching for her missing mother, Eudoria (Helena Bonham Carter) across England.
+ all of the core four – Brown, Cavill, Claflin and Carter – are well cast and have a few fun moments, with Brown in particular the standout. Her handful of fourth-wall breaking asides are fun and well delivered and it is not hard to see her reprising this role again in the future; but there’ more on that below
+ Burn Gorman has a supporting role, and I couldn’t help but be reminded of his turn as Karl Fookin’ Tanner in Game of Thrones, a fooking legend of Gin Alley. Fiona Shaw (Harry Potter‘s Petunia Dursely) also has a role as another horrid character, and does so really well
+ I spotted (heard?) a few very clever audio crossovers, such as someone yelling turning into a train engine. Whether it’s faint praise that that is what I noticed is up to you (see also: The Gunner’s Dream by Pink Floyd, you’ll know it when you hear it)
– the entire movie is dreadfully dull. No amount of fourth wall breaking is enough to mar the fact that nothing happens for the first 45 minutes of the 2 hour plus run time, and even by the end you’ll be questioning what even really happened
– not necessarily a negative itself, but this movie very clearly sets itself up as the beginning of a franchise (considering there are another five books to draw inspiration from…)
Should you see this film: I wanted to like this, but I was just bored out of my wits for the majority of it. I caught myself wanting to just play on my phone multiple times, but stopped myself and payed attention and I never felt rewarded for it.
MoshFish Reviews 