Streaming Spotlight by Cindy Summers
Enola Holmes – Amazon Originals
4 being best.
Eudoria Holmes (Helena Bonham Carter) named her daughter Enola (Millie Bobby Brown) because she was a fan of word games and is “alone” spelled backwards, as wanted Enola to grow up to be an independent woman. On the morning of Enola’s sixteenth birthday, she discovered her mother had left leaving some gifts, including some handmade cards with pressed flowers with inspirational sayings.
The disappearance of her mother prompted the return of her two brothers, Mycroft (Sam Claflin) and Sherlock (Henry Cavill), the famous detective, scholar, chemist, virtuoso violinist, expert marksman, pugilist, and brilliant deductive thinker. Sherlock deduced that his mother had planned leaving and not returning. Mycroft’s main concern was finding a boarding school for Enola, which she did not want, but Enola was legally Mycroft’s ward in the absence of their mother.
Enola disguised herself as a boy, went to the train station and headed off to find her mother. She slipped into a private car, where a young man a was hiding in a luggage bag. He introduced himself as Viscount Tewkesbury, the Marquess of Basilwether (Louis Partridge), who snuck onboard to escape his family. The man looking for Tewkesbury found him and tried to throw him off the train, and Enola hit him with a cane and they escaped by jumping from the train and headed to London.
Enola then placed cyphers in every paper she thought her mother may read. Enola then went to the only address she saw her mother write letters to in London, where upstairs she found a group of women practicing martial arts. The teacher Edith knew Enola and Enola recognized her from a women’s meeting at her mother’s home. Remembering names mentioned from that meeting, Enola was able to reverse the names she heard and find the corresponding places in London.
Enola was attacked by the man from the train, set off some explosives to escape and decided to find Tewkesbury. Enola went to the flower market, and found Tewkesbury there. They went back to where Enola was staying when Inspector Lestrade from Scotland Yard burst into the room, catching Enola and turned her over to Mycroft, who dropped her off at Miss Harrison’s Finishing School.
Enola realized the Tewkesbury was in danger because his vote for change would carry much weight with the current Lords in power, and at that very moment Tewkesbury showed up in a wicker crate. Tewkesbury used the crate to sneak Enola out, and they escaped by stealing Miss Harrsion’s motor car and headed to Tewkesbury’s home having determined it was his uncle who was trying to kill him.
They again encounter the man from the train, who knocked out Enola and attempted to kill Tewkesbury, but Enola used a Jujitsu move causing him to fall onto a a statue and die. Tewkesbury’s grandmother revealed herself as the person behind the plan to kill Tewkesbury and used a shotgun to shoot her grandson. Fortunately, Tewkesbury was wearing a metal shield and was unharmed.
Enola returned to her room to find her mother who said she couldn’t stay but wanted to apologize and explain that she had to leave to secure a future world for her daughter, only to learn her daughter had been behind protecting Tewkesbury to support the Reform Bill. Millie Bobby Brown is perfect in her role as Enola Holmes in this amusing detective story having interesting and relatable family dynamics centered around a witty, confident heroine that’s a great inspiration for younger generations of women.
Rated: PG-13
123 minutes
