This new Netflix original movie has everything I could ask for in a detective movie. Enola Holmes presents herself as an intelligent, clever and feminist 16-year-old that defies the gender roles of her time.
*Spoilers ahead*
Millie Bobby Brown brings to life Enola Holmes, the sister of the famous Sherlock Holmes. Her mother raised her to be a strong woman and educated Enola herself by teaching subjects such as science, sports, and self-defense; she also made her daughter read tons of books to learn about innumerable topics. After her mother’s disappearance, Enola’s brothers, Mycroft (Sam Claflin) and Sherlock Holmes (Henry Cavill), return to their house. We learn that, with their mother’s disappearance, Mycroft is in charge of Enola’s education, and he wants to send her off to a boarding school to learn how to be a “lady”. Enola doesn’t agree with his misogynistic views and looks for clues her mother might have left behind for her to decipher her disappearance. After identifying one, Enola escapes from her brothers to try and find her.
While fleeing, she meets a boy who introduces himself as Viscount Tewkbury, another runaway. She tries to leave him behind but turns back after hearing him scream, and saves him from an assassin. After that, it’s all a game of outwitting her brothers so they don’t find her and trying to solve the mystery of who wants Viscount Tewkbury dead.
One of the elements I enjoyed the most from this movie is that Enola looks straight at the camera and talks to us as if we are there with her, even going as far as asking the viewer’s opinion on certain dilemmas. Some might think that Enola breaking the fourth wall is cringy, but I think it was a necessary factor so that the spectator gets to know the character more, and to understand her independent personality.
This film carries a strong feminist message, and Enola shatters all stereotypes of what a lady should be like during Victorian England. I found myself loving this witty girl that wasn’t scared to defy anyone who didn’t allow her to follow her own path. Even if it’s a detective mystery movie, the actual not-so-hidden conflict is fighting patriarchal ideals in order to be truly free and leave a better world for the women of the future. We can clearly see this from the beginning, as Enola’s mom teaches her that “Our future is up to us,” and to defy the norms of society.
I think Enola Holmes is a movie that will inspire the future generation’s feminists. Enola Holmes shakes Victorian England with her intelligent plans and her trousers; and she teaches us to make our own future and follow our own rules, not conforming to society’s norms. In my book, that is something great for any film to boast.