01/10/2020 Film Review

Title- Enola Holmes

Certificate- 12

The Stars- Millie Bobby Brown, Louis Partridge, Henry Cavill, Sam Claflin, Helena Bonham Carter

Plot- Younger sister to Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes, Enola, goes to London to search for her missing mother, meeting and helping a runaway lord on the way.

Best bits- The historical setting and costumes. I have always liked this time period; mostly the fashion, and I think the costume designer did a fantastic job. I enjoy character design, so in my opinion it is always a good sign when a movie costume inspires me to draw the character or design my own in a similar way.

The scenes that made you think and try to solve things along with the characters. Some of the camera angles and momentary scene changes to show flashbacks very cleverly revealed some clues to the viewer, without giving absolutely everything away. The animations of the letter tiles rearranging themselves were also very clever to me, I never would have come up with an idea like that myself.

The plot twists. Without giving too much away, some of the characters’ actions were unexpected or even shocking at times. Looking back, one character’s actions should not have surprised me in the slightest but being as absorbed in the story as I was, it still surprised me. Another’s was partially expected when the time period is considered, but some of the planned actions were unexpected. These however clicked very satisfyingly into place a few moments later. I take my hat off to whoever wrote the script.

Favourite Characters- Sherlock and Tewkesbury. I am a big fan of the character of Sherlock Holmes and have been for a while now. I feel that Henry Cavill played him very well. As for Tewkesbury, I found him very sweet and innocent. I have always liked characters like these, especially when they have their own moments to shine.

Weak bits- A couple of the moments when Enola, the protagonist, looks into the camera and breaks the fourth wall fell flat for me. While some of them were very amusing and lent well to the scene, I can recall a couple that felt out of place or even patronising. Maybe if these had been changed, moved or even entirely left out, it would have been better. It felt like the quality of the movie was brought down in a few moments like this.

There are also a couple of historical inaccuracies. I was able to forgive a few of them as they added to some of the humour and storyline, but others could have been a little more easily avoided and still have the same effect.

Hit or Miss- Hit in my opinion.

Rating- 4.5/5