If there is a more charming pair of movies than “Enola Holmes” 1 & 2 I’d very much like to know what they are. Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things) nails the character with charm and poise unparalleled in my experience. We came to know her in Stranger Things, but easily come to love her in these two (so far) movies. Her frequent interface with the fourth wall brings light into her performance that enhances the experience.
They’re good stories, too. Mystery with action, charm, exactly no friggin’ queers, no bad language, did I mention charm?, and with correct period scenes, clothing, and attitudes. The movies—and the books from which they spring—take us to the late 19th century in England, with Enola interplaying with the well-known Sherlock Holmes and Mycroft, her older brothers. Sherlock is played by Henry Cavill, who has great good looks and thus is not the best actor to play Holmes…though he fits well enough here. The definitive Sherlock is unquestionably Jeremy Brett, but he’s dead, so….
The books from which the movies evolve are by Nancy Springer, an American writer, which came as a surprise to me. The details in her excellent books about Enola Holmes (there are currently eight) concerning the mean streets of London slums in the late 1880s led me to believe Ms. Springer had grown up somewhere near London, or perhaps had some grand way to peer into the past and describe so colourfully the street scenes, the manner of dress the heroine wears, the attitudes between the various ‘castes’ of English folk at the period, and a lot more. These clever details could only come from close experience or vast, truly vast, research. But she is in fact American by birth.
The movies don’t exactly follow the text, which means once your interest is piqued by the Netflix movies, you’ll have to get the books. Ms. Springer has an extremely clever way of turning a phrase, and this makes for delightful reading. The books are sometimes touted as for ‘young readers,’ but that’s a damned lie. They are SUPERB examples of the writer’s art. The fact that there is no cursing on the pages makes boneheads think only the young would enjoy these. By all means, BUY ‘EM!!! C’mon, Millie Bobby! Give us Enola number 3!