I’ve been told a lot and read a lot about the legend of Sherlock Holmes and his family tree; having received his fair share of books, Tv shows, movies, documentaries and other stuff I’m probably missing. But while I’m familiar with the whole Sherlock Holmes lore, there was bound to be a few dry spots that I had yet to clean up......like the VERY recent Netflix release on “Enola Holmes“. This newest installation into the Sherlock Holmes film family, based on the young adult novel series by Nancy Springer introduces this would-be indigenous stepping stone as a potential girl powered franchise.....and I actually don’t mind it at all. Outside of the fact that it’s actually kind of refreshing to not see Sherlock get the lions den of the screentime, once I remembered that this wasn’t supposed to be another brandish history lesson or an established connection to the Guy Ritchie films, turning my brain off and enjoying this film became a LOT easier.
To start off, major props to Millie Bobby Brown. Outside of Stranger Things and Godzilla: King Of The Monsters, I hadn’t seen much from her that convinced me that she was someone worth seeing. Here though, that completely changed, for this rising actress was given enough creative leverage to display the charm, likability and presence that’s needed in a role similar to this. She’s fun to watch, chews up the scenery whenever she gets the chance (although the constant fourth wall breaking does get awkward rather quickly) and it’s hard not to root for her. The rest of the acting heavily reflects the films fun, hopeful and bubbly attitude but that’s mostly thanks to the characters more or less being highly exaggerated versions of their own fictitious counterparts much to the stories credit. It packed a vibrant atmosphere, cinematography and editing does tend to get inventive with some of its shots, production design made for one of the more beautiful looking set designs I’ve seen this year, the direction this story took, while formulaic, is rather authentic and sometimes unpredictable and similar to last years Nancy Drew reboot (which I still like btw), the relative simplicity and undercooked quality made evident within its story aren’t too much of a stumbling block despite its messages on female empowerment being a bit on the nose and the story being rather easy to predict. The commentary on oppression and class/privilege differences thrown in there were alright, but the love story subplot was hit or miss.
For once, I can honestly say I’m looking forward to a continuation with these characters and the world they inhabit. And from what I heard.....it’s already happening.
