Enola Holmes Movie Review (2020) | A Poorly Crafted Spinoff

Enola Holmes movie is such a big miss, unlike what was being prophesied by the trailers and a dispensable futile build up. Firstly, it is a spinoff nobody asked for. Secondly, the movie is not even remotely connected to any of the awesomeness of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle or Sherlock for that to matter. Let’s find out more in this Enola Holmes Movie Review.

Enola Holmes movie simply feels like something the studios were keen on bringing to the big screen just to rake in the moolas, you know, coming up with something to live off the name of Sherlock. While they try to clearly feed off his back, the studios simply fail to give us something worth nibbling.

Go ahead and find out more about what worked or what didn’t in this Enola Holmes Movie Review.

The Writing and Direction of Enola Holmes

The movie which is based on the book series by Nancy Springer is a superficial piece we could have lived without. There are so many instances in the movie that tell you the movie wasn’t done in all its seriousness.

The director Harry Bradbeer clearly aimed this as a material to lure kids and teenagers. I guess, if you are one, you might as well enjoy this.

The primal problem with Enola Holmes is how she literally vlogs through the cinema taking timeouts to react on camera. The popular phenomenon of breaking the fourth wall as witnessed in Deadpool feels good only if the stuff is funny. Sadly, in here, it felt forced.

Taking a second to react on camera is I think a bad call for a serious movie. But then Enola Holmes never intended to be one. How disconnected you want us to be that you want to draw us away from the main storyline?

Those frequent pitstops takes away all the seriousness, making it a lot harder to concentrate. To make matters worse, the expressions Millie Bobby Brown give for such split seconds are far from cute too which makes the affair difficult to watch.

Millie Bobby Brown as Enola Holmes

Okay so it wasn’t a bad casting choice. Millie Bobby Brown has been nailing her parts as a child actor, however still failing to land good big screen projects.

The millennial child’s big big-screen debut Godzilla: King of the Monsters was a debacle. But you can cut her some slack since she is only getting started. When you are taking your baby steps, you can’t be too picky.

If you take a look at Brown’s character’s import, you realize it is everything the movie revolves around. Brown ends up becoming a lot more smug with her character, taking her for granted.

Trying to paint Enola as likable, she ends up doing the exact opposite. She sells her way too much. Sometimes so much that you see through her.

Sherlock and Mycroft in Enola Holmes Movie Review

Henry Cavill‘s Sherlock wasn’t bad. The only problem is that the storyline tries to outsmart the king of deduction. The sleuth is simply there just to have a emotional corner for his sister, and to grin when Enola proves herself worthy of some detective work.

Sam Claflin‘s Mycroft is brilliant. He brings in that negative arc to the story by being outright uptight. Sam does a great Mycroft, although he is yet another pawn adding only some bits and pieces to the story. Deliberately, throwing in an angle to throw hurdles in front of Enola. He and Inspector Lestrade are basically cheap thrills, just there to revive the elements from the popular book.

Another element in the movie who is a big disappointment is hands down Tewkesbury portrayed by Louis Partridge. The bloke plays a wuss who has nothing substantial to do except play the love interest of Enola. There are so many instances in the movie where he ends up disappointing you that it is really hard to take this guy for real.

Tewkesbury is also one of the main characters around which the story is written but he often plays out as a subplot, showing up every now and then.

The Mystery in Review Enola Holmes Movie

It is generally the mystery that drives a story forward. Turns out Enola Holmes movie houses an uneventful mystery. It fails to turn heads or even dilate eyes. If you are a Sherlock fan, it must have bothered you how unexciting is the mystery that the movie carries.

Things that instantly prick your eyes is how brainlessly Enola tries to run for content in the story. Deliberately going on a side mission, digressing from her primal objective just because she felt like it. She makes you feel the helplessness of being an audience. What is worse is that she rubs it in your face by defying the fourth wall. So frustrating!

There is nothing really smart about the sleuth that we are handed. Even the final mystery ends up getting unraveled with a postulation plot. You are not at all impressed by her deduction skills. It is like non-existent, and so very opposite of what Sherlock used to be. There are few instances that try to bring her smartness to the limelight. That is sad for a sleuth movie.

Check out this cool journal of Enola Holmes here:

The Final Verdict

Enola Holmes is a big miss. You can’t help but wonder if a better director had made this, would it have been worth your time? Even though the creators were aiming to stick to the Nancy Springer book, they fail to improve the overall quality.

But if you let your teenage heart play fiddle for a while, you realize it is not that bad either. It is quite average and if you are not thinking too much, you might actually see it as an adventure too. The adventure basically helps it survive.

Some good performances by the rest of the cast save it from becoming an utter disaster, but if you are trying to look at the imposing meter, it doesn’t give a good reading there. Nothing impressive!

Check out the trailer of Enola Holmes here:

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