By Sanjana Ganesh
Enola holmes: an excellent movie, filled with tons of action, emotion and love, which manages to make me feel extremely sad about my 17 year old self. Enola holmes is a movie about adventure and discovering oneself. The movie is set in the 20th century, in the countryside of England and London. The protagonist, Enola Holmes, is a 16 year old who has been raised by a single mother, and she’s the younger sister of the renowned detectives Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes, though she has never met them. In the initial parts of the movie, it is seen how Enola’s mother raises her to be an independent young girl, unlike what was expected to be taught to girls at that time. She is made to read, learn science and train for combat as well. Enola’s world is her mother. But one day, she wakes up to see her mother gone. The story revolves around Enola trying to find her mother and learning more about the world in the process, from meeting and forming a relationship with her brothers to discovering the political world and of course, finding love (because what is a movie without a 16 year old without finding the love of her life in the first guy she meets her age).
But real talk, the movie is excellent. It manages to merge the political question of universal suffrage at the time with an action packed film. The cast is exceptional. Every person plays their part just right, and a 20th century England really does come out. Millie Bobby Brown’s character is amazing. It’s refreshing to see not only a female lead, but one who does appear to break all the quintessential female characteristics. Her intelligence lights out like a flame frequently through the film, she fights like a tigress and dares to do a lot of the unknown. Her courage and bravery comes out, by her escaping home and going to London, and by going away from her mission to find her mother and start helping Tewkesbury. Furthermore, Enola is developed well as a rounded character. Her kindness and empathy do come out at times; for instance, when she lets Tewkesbury escape over her life. She also shifts between being a gorgeous young lady to disguising as a boy, and what’s even more refreshing about this dichotomy, is the fact that this “gorgeous young lady” look on Enola isn’t portrayed as the better glow up look for her, like what is portrayed in every rom com, rather it’s actually made fun of and Enola’s masculine side is appreciated.
Coming to pairings, Millie Bobby Brown as Enola Holmes and Louis Partridge as Tewkesbury are amazing. Their chemistry is there right from the start, and you know they’re going to end up together then itself. But their dialogues and banter are very cute. It’s also interesting to see the role reversal between the two, where it’s actually Enola saving Tewkesbury’s life, strategising and doing the actual fighting, while Tewkesbury is the one interested in the flowers and gardening.
The movie also shows a lot of action, and is quite fast paced. There is a lot of intelligence that comes out from the way Enola solves certain puzzles, to the way she and Sherlock interact. It’s also interesting to see how one of the main villain’s of the film is Mycroft Holmes itself, who is none other than Enola’s brother. He forces her to go to finishing school and act like a “lady”, which she obviously doesn’t want, and conflict arises from this. What I like the most about this is the fact that there is such a wide range of characters shown, who could be from the same upbringing but with such different thoughts; for eg: between Sherlock and Mycroft.
What was the most interesting about this film was actually finding out who the villain is. I won’t give any spoilers, but I for sure did not expect it. And the surprise was definitely interesting. As mentioned before, what was also nice was the themes of feminism and universal suffrage coming out through the movie, as the movie used its influencer ability to actually intertwine these events and show them in a positive light. The movie is a definite recommendation from my side. Even though the movie may not be very deep or captivating for everyone, it’s just the right amount of everything: romance, action and drama. It’s a great watch for a friday afternoon after school, to just sit and enter the alternate universe of Enola Holmes.
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