Sherlock Holmes’ younger sister has grown up in the country, raised by her single mother and away from her famous siblings Mycroft and Sherlock. After the disappearance of her free-thinking mother, she escapes Mycroft’s attempts to make her socially acceptable — and less of an embarrassment to him, a government official — to travel to London in search of the missing Holmes family matriarch.
On the way she gets embroiled, like Holmes family members tend to do, in the case of a missing aristocrat, has her brothers trying to find her, for various reasons, and is slowly stumbling across the plot her mother has gotten herself into.
The movie paints a fine picture of how the Victorian upper class felt about its “good graces” and how much it doesn’t want the proverbial boat rocked. There is very clear view of how women are expected to behave, and any girl not meeting that cliché needs to be corrected.
But this was also the time of the suffragettes. Women are starting to fight back.
Which makes Enola Holmes more interesting than your average Sherlock Holmes flick, but not to the point where it’s no longer fun. The movie doesn’t preach, but it does occasionally make you think.
Millie Bobby Brown does a great job portraying Enola Holmes. Henry Cavill, of Superman and The Man from U.N.C.L.E (our review here) fame, stars as her older brother, Sherlock.
If you like detective stories, enjoy Sherlock Holmes and have Netflix, this is worth the two hours!
