CLASSIC SPIN
ENOLA HOLMES DELVES BEHIND THE FAMOUS BROTHER SHERLOCK AND DELIVERS A FRESH LOOK AT A MUCHLOVED TALE
Behind every great 19th century detective ... is an under-appreciated sister chafing against the constrictions of her too-tight corset.
That’s the thesis behind this revisionist mystery-adventure based on Nancy Springer’s YA book series and starring Stranger Things’ Millie Bobby Brown.
Enola Holmes is only a teenager, but already she can run rings around her older brother Sherlock (a dashing but emotionally unavailable Henry Cavill).
When Enola’s widowed mother (Helena Bonham Carter) disappears on the eve of her daughter’s 16th birthday, it doesn’t take the two supersleuths long to figure out that the unorthodox family matriarch has done so, not by misadventure, but by design.
Having schooled her daughter in jiujitsu , cryptography and the physical sciences as well as art and literature, Eudoria Holmes is apparently confident Enola can take care of herself (which might explain why the name she gave her daughter is an anagram for alone.) Unfortunately, our indefatigable heroine’s humourless older brother Myford (Sam Claflin) is still her legal guardian. And he’s determined to send her to finishing school, where Fiona Shaw’s formidable headmistress will smooth off some of the rough edges.
On the train to London — having successfully given her two brothers the slip — Enola is diverted from her primary mission to be reunited with her mother by a stranger who materialises from a carpet bag in the overhead luggage rack. Lord Viscount Tewksbury (Louis Partridge) is also attempting to escape the stultifying Victorian conformity his family has planned for him.
But his aristocratic upbringing, combined with a naturally conflict-averse temperament, leave him physically vulnerable.
When a faceless assassin (Burn Gorman) attempts to push Tewksbury from the moving train, Enola has little choice but to intervene.
And from then on, the pair’s paths become inextricably intertwined.
The filmmakers have a bet both ways with this nascent romance – Enola explicitly acknowledges her mother’s disapproval of such emotional entanglements even as she falls under Tewksbury’s spell. The lack of conventional gender stereotyping, however, mitigates any suggestion that she might need a bloke to succeed.
At times, the film’s message – centred around the passage of the Representation of the People Act 1884, which paved the way for women’s suffrage — gets in the way of the audience’s crime-solving pleasure.
But Bobby Brown lends her character a spunky vitality that’s warm and engaging and Bonham ENOLA HOLMES hhhjj Director Harry Bradbeer Starring Millie Bobby Brown, Helena Bonham Carter, Henry Cavill Rating CTC Running time 123 minutes Verdict A fresh, feminist spin on a much-loved classic
Carter adds some emotional edge as the radical Victorian matriarch.
A fresh, contemporary spin on a much-loved classic. Screening on Netflix now