Enola Holmes (film)

Enola Holmes
Official release poster
Directed by	Harry Bradbeer
Screenplay by	Jack Thorne
Based on	The Enola Holmes Mysteries: The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer
Produced by	Mary Parent Alex Garcia Ali Mendes Millie Bobby Brown Paige Brown
Starring	Millie Bobby Brown Sam Claflin Henry Cavill Helena Bonham Carter
Cinematography	Giles Nuttgens
Edited by	Adam Bosman
Music by	Daniel Pemberton
Production companies	Legendary Pictures PCMA Productions
Distributed by	Netflix
Release date	September 23, 2020 (2020-09-23)
Running time	123 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Enola Holmes is a 2020 American mystery film based on the first book in the series of the same name by Nancy Springer. The story is about the teenage sister of the already-famous Sherlock Holmes, who goes to London in search of her mother who has disappeared. The film is directed by Harry Bradbeer, from a screenplay by Jack Thorne. Millie Bobby Brown stars as the title character, while also serving as a producer on the film. Henry Cavill, Sam Claflin, Adeel Akhtar, Fiona Shaw, Frances de la Tour, Louis Partridge, Susie Wokoma and Helena Bonham Carter appear in supporting roles.

Originally planned for a theatrical release by Warner Bros. Pictures, the distribution rights to the film were sold to Netflix due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Enola Holmes was released on September 23, 2020. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised Brown's performance.

Plot

Enola Holmes is the youngest sibling in the famous Holmes family. She is extremely intelligent, observant, and insightful, and defies the social norms for women of the time. Her mother, Eudoria, has taught her everything from chess to jujitsu and encouraged her to be a strong-willed, and independent thinking young woman.

On the day of her sixteenth birthday, Enola awakens to find her mother has disappeared, leaving behind only some birthday gifts of stationery. She rushes to the train station to meet her brothers, Mycroft and Sherlock, who fail to recognize her at first, not having seen her in many years. Sherlock finds her to be an intelligent girl, whereas Mycroft finds her troublesome. As her legal guardian, Mycroft intends to send her away to a finishing school run by the stern Miss Harrison. The flowers left by her mother reveal secret messages and lead to hidden money, which Enola uses to escape disguised as a boy. On the train, she finds the young Viscount Tewkesbury hidden in a travel bag. She thinks he is a nincompoop but warns him that a man in a brown bowler hat (named Linthorn) is on the train, searching for him. They jump off the train to escape. Having no food Tewkesbury forages for edible plants. They travel to London, where they part ways.

Disguised as a proper Victorian lady, she continues to trace Eudoria and leaves cryptic messages in the newspaper personal advertisements. Enola discovers pamphlets and a safehouse containing explosives and learns that Eudoria is part of a radical group of suffragettes. She is attacked by Linthorn, who tortures her for information about Tewkesbury, attempting to drown her. They fight but she is able to ignite the explosives and escape. Enola decides to pause the search for her mother and instead find Tewkesbury again to save him, because he is not capable of defending himself. Enola visits the Tewkesbury estate at Basilwether Hall to learn more. Mycroft has Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard search for Enola.

Enola finds Tewkesbury selling flowers in Covent Garden and warns him of the danger. She helps him escape, but is caught by Lestrade and imprisoned in Miss Harrison's finishing school by Mycroft. Sherlock visits her and admits he is impressed by her detective work. Tewkesbury sneaks into the school, and they escape together, stealing Miss Harrison's motor car. They reach a fork in the road and, rather than returning to London, Enola decides they must go to Basilwether Hall and face his uncle, who she has deduced was trying to kill him. The estate is seemingly deserted, Linthorn ambushes them, firing a shotgun. Enola trips him using a jujitsu move, causing a fatal head injury. Tewkesbury's grandmother is revealed as the real villain; a traditionalist, she did not want him to take his father's place in the House of Lords and vote for the Reform Bill. Sherlock arrives at Scotland Yard, and Lestrade asks him two questions: firstly how he managed to solve the case, and secondly how his sister solved it first.

Enola deciphers a message she finds in the newspaper, but deduces it was not sent by her mother. At the meeting point, Sherlock and Mycroft discuss Enola, and Sherlock suggests he might become her guardian. As they are about to give up and leave Sherlock notices an old toy Enola has left as a clue, and chooses not to look for her. All the while Enola has been watching disguised as a newsboy. Returning to her lodgings, Enola finds her mother waiting. They embrace, and Eudoria explains why she had to leave, and why she must leave again, but she expresses how impressed she is at what Enola has become. Enola has found her freedom and her purpose—she is a detective and a finder of lost souls.

Cast

• Millie Bobby Brown as Enola Holmes, the youngest sibling in the famous Holmes family. Extremely intelligent, observant and insightful, she defies the social norms for women of the era. Under her mother's tutelage, she has learned everything from chess to jujitsu, and is extensively well read.
• Henry Cavill as Sherlock Holmes, the second-oldest of the Holmes siblings. A renowned private detective.
• Sam Claflin as Mycroft Holmes, the eldest of the Holmes siblings. He has a well-paid government job and is Enola's legal guardian. Although Mycroft is older than Sherlock, Claflin is three years younger than Cavill.
• Helena Bonham Carter as Eudoria Holmes, the matriarch of the Holmes family. Eccentric, free-spirited and unconventional, Eudoria raises Enola to pursue her own path rather than that laid out for her by others and to redefine what it means to be a woman in society.
• Louis Partridge as Viscount Tewkesbury, Marquess of Basilwether
• Burn Gorman as Linthorn
• Adeel Akhtar as Lestrade
• Susie Wokoma as Edith
• Hattie Morahan as Lady Caroline Tewkesbury, Tewkesbury's mother
• David Bamber as Sir Whimbrel Tewkesbury, Tewkesbury's uncle
• Frances de la Tour as The Dowager, Tewkesbury's grandmother
• Claire Rushbrook as Mrs. Lane, the Holmes family housekeeper
• Fiona Shaw as Miss Harrison
• Ellie Haddington as Miss Gregory

Production

By February 2019, a film adaptation of the Nancy Springer book series The Enola Holmes Mysteries was in development at Legendary Pictures, with Millie Bobby Brown producing and starring in the title role and Harry Bradbeer set to direct. Brown had read the books with her older sister Paige and immediately wanted to play the role of Enola, but wasn't yet old enough to play the character. She later told her father they should make it into a film and partnered with Legendary Pictures, the same company she had previously worked with on Godzilla: King of the Monsters. She discussed with writer Jack Thorne how she wanted to break the fourth wall.

In June, Henry Cavill, Helena Bonham Carter, Adeel Akhtar and Fiona Shaw joined the cast, with Sam Claflin, Louis Partridge, Susie Wokoma and Burn Gorman joining in July as filming began in London. Filming also took place at Luton Hoo in Bedfordshire. Railway scenes were filmed in Worcestershire at Arley railway station, Kidderminster Town railway station and Victoria Bridge on the Severn Valley Railway. The Holmes family residence Ferndell Hall was filmed at Benthall Hall in Shropshire.

Oscar nominated costume designer Consolata Boyle was responsible for creating the costumes. Boyle and her team custom-designed, dyed and made the costumes for the principle cast and background actors. Approximately thirty costumes were created for Enola, and costumes such as the red powderpuff dress had to be repeated several more times because of the physicality of the role and any damage that might occur during fight scenes. The powderpuff dress was based on theatrical costumes of the period, and Boyle wanted to use red, the colour of courage. Boyle's favourite was Enola's final dress, it used the same shape as the first dress Enola wore while riding the bicycle bringing the costumes back full circle, but also the natural untreated silk used in the final dress has no strong colour and "it allows for anything to happen next."

Visual effects were supervised by Michael Ellis and done by Mr. X and Host VFX.

The Conan Doyle Estate filed a lawsuit against Netflix over the film, claiming it violates copyright by depicting Sherlock Holmes as having emotions, an aspect of the character which they argue does not fall under the public domain as he was only described as having emotions in stories published between 1923 to 1927, and the copyright for the stories published in that period still belong to the estate. Cavill said that his portrayal of Sherlock "a lot more emotional to begin with, so we pared it back, and we said, 'alright, let’s not make it too emotional'." On the lawsuit he said "It's a character from a page which we worked out from the screenplay. The legal stuff is above my pay grade."

Music

In July 2019, Daniel Pemberton was announced as composer of the film's score. The soundtrack was released on September 18, 2020.

Release

In April 2020, Netflix acquired distribution rights to the film, as opposed to a theatrical release by Warner Bros. Pictures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film was released on September 23, 2020.

To promote the film in the United Kingdom, Netflix installed a series of statues of famous sisters next to existing statues of their famous brothers. They also released a free play at home adventure game in collaboration with Escape Hunt UK called An Enola Holmes Adventure.

In its debut weekend Enola Holmes was the second most-watched item on Netflix, behind the TV series Ratched. Over its first five days it was the most watched film on Netflix.

Reception

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 91% based on 146 reviews, with an average rating of 7.08/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Enola Holmes brings a breath of fresh air to Baker Street – and leaves plenty of room for Millie Bobby Brown to put her effervescent stamp on a franchise in waiting." On Metacritic, it was assigned a weighted average score of 68 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Peter Debruge of Variety called the film an "entertaining franchise starter" and praised Brown's performance, stating that "[her] acting style recalls the effusive spontaneity Keira Knightley brought to Pride and Prejudice, shattering the straitlaced propriety of so many Jane Austen adaptations before it." Debruge found the film "more tasteful in its high-energy storytelling than Guy Ritchie's recent Sherlock Holmes movies, and considerably more fun than [2019]'s Nancy Drew reboot." John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review and wrote: "It successfully imagines a place for its heroine in Holmes' world, then convinces young viewers that Enola needn't be constrained by that world's borders." Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post wrote: "Enola Holmes offers brisk and exuberant escape from the heaviness of modern times, with its leading actress lending her own appealing touches to the journey. When the game is afoot, she's more than capable, not just of keeping up, but winning the day." Ella Kemp of Empire magazine wrote: "Well-intentioned if sometimes lacking in subtlety, Enola Holmes offers a fine, spirited reminder that a traditional story can always be retold – although it might need more refined teachings on feminism next time." Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave a mixed review, saying: "It all rattles along amiably enough. Enola Holmes is the kind of all-star production that might once have been made by the BBC" but had some criticism for the mystery elements of the story "there should have been more specifically ingenious deducting and solving from Enola – codebreaking isn't the same thing."

In a negative review, Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote: "A bright young actress, a movie-star actor and a potentially interesting concept gets smothered in 128 minutes of colorful, empty nonsense."

Sequel

In September 2020, producer and star Millie Bobby Brown and director Harry Bradbeer acknowledged their intentions to develop a sequel. Brown thought only about making the first film but loved playing the character and said it would be a dream to do it again.

External links

• Enola Holmes on Netflix
• Enola Holmes at IMDb
• Conan Doyle Estate Ltd. v. Springer docket on CourtListener