Review: Enola Holmes

 Let’s talk about feminist think pieces because that’s what my main takeaway was from the movie I will be reviewing.

We are living in a timeline where the general public has grown tired of toxic masculinity.  Hell, we are on the verge of removing a toxic man from the White House.  Take as much time as you want to celebrate that victory before moving on.

 

Anyway, I feel like a majority of our society is tired of gender stereotypes.  And while we have made gradual improvements over the past decade in terms of educational, professional, and interpersonal outcomes and opportunities for women that are equal to those of men, we still have a ways to go in terms of women having a lot of the same rights as men.  This is coming from someone who is a white male, but I’ve thought my whole life that there shouldn’t be a difference when it comes to any sort of social norms and equality.  Women should have the same rights and opportunities as men.  Plain and simple.

And you know what has been a great outlet for feminist think pieces?  The entertainment industry.  Where there have been many movies, television shows, etc. centered around strong female role models.  Then of course there is also the #MeToo movement, where we are purging Hollywood of the toxic males who have held positions of powers for years in the entertainment business.  So yeah, I’d say the past decade has been gradually improving the world for females.  We still have a long way to go in terms of making up for hundreds of years of many forms of injustice, but I can only look at the future with hope that we can make it right.

 

So what does any of this have to do with the movie I’m talking about today in Enola Holmes?  Well Enola Holmes is immediately introduced as a strong female character raised by her strong independent mother, while also being the kid sister of famous detective brothers Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes.  And the plot point of the movie is that her mother goes missing so Enola goes on a journey to discover her mother’s whereabouts while also finding out who she really is as a person along the way.  Easy enough set-up for a female-led teen movie, right?

Well here’s the thing.  I think this movie is not the feminist think-piece those involved wanted this movie to be.  No offense to anyone who thinks otherwise because if anyone finds this movie empowering, then who am I to tell you, otherwise?  After all, we are all entitled to our own opinions.  But to me, I was left wanting more shown when it comes to strong character moments rather than being told that our characters are strong and independent women.

When I think of powerful feminine moments from movies in recent memory, I think of Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road taking down a whole fleet by herself.  I think of Wonder Woman entering No Man’s Land to take on German soldiers.  I think of Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games movies owning her surroundings and constantly proving herself as a threat to The Capitol.  Just to name a few examples off the top of my head.  And you know what these filmmakers did right?  They SHOWED us these iconic moments instead of telling us what they were doing.

And honestly, that’s Enola Holmes main flaw to a fault to me.  Having Enola constantly breaking the fourth wall to describe a lot of key moments as they came.  If it was a couple times, then it wouldn’t have been as big of a problem for me.  I like fourth wall breaking.  But it was like she was trying more so to be Deadpool with all the subtle winks and explaining to the audience what she was thinking about during so many key moments.  And once you make that connection, it was super hard to ignore the obvious comparisons.

It’s not just the Deadpool comparisons that don’t make this movie’s message work for me either.  So many times throughout the movie, random characters kept saying “times are changing” and “there is a movement coming”.  Obviously key points towards this movie’s feminist message.  But as I stated a few paragraphs ago, it is one thing for the movie to think it has a feminist message.  You can say your piece has a message, but it is another thing entirely to show and I can’t think of a single iconic feminist moment in Enola Holmes that made me think “FUCK YEAH!”  Sure there were moments that had Enola Holmes kicking ass, but I didn’t think for a single minute that she was an empowering character while doing so.  If anything, I felt like she was a lighter version of Sherlock Holmes.  And I’m not referring to the same Sherlock Holmes in this movie, I mean the Robert Downey Jr films as well as the Benedict Cumberbatch BBC miniseries.  Not once did I feel like Enola Holmes was her own standalone character.

That’s not saying this movie was bad.  I still had a good time watching it.  Despite being obnoxious at points, I thought Millie Bobby Brown was good with what she was given.  Not her fault her character was flat.  I also thought Henry Cavill was even better as Sherlock Holmes.  I would definitely like to see his own version of the character in a series of some sort.  And despite being in the movie for barely ten minutes, Helena Bonham Carter is always a welcoming presence.

Also, the action sequences did have me at the edge of my seat throughout.  There is this one sequence on a train that you all probably saw from the trailers.  It is much better than the trailers made it out to be including a few cool stunts here and there that I can’t say I’ve seen before.  This was a well filmed movie in general.

But I can’t shake off how mismanaged this movie’s message was.  It just sat with me throughout the movie’s long runtime.  It’s over two hours.  Definitely felt longer.  I just kept waiting and waiting for that one moment that really stood out for me when it came to displaying its message instead of saying it.  That was my main takeaway from this otherwise perfectly fine movie.  I still recommend it because what else is there to really watch right now?

 

Final Grade: B

 

Really wanted to like this movie a lot more than I did, but like I said, I wish it gave Enola Holmes more of an identity.  Anyway, thank you all for reading as always.  Got another movie review in the works as well as another music retrospective.  Hope to have both out this month, we shall see.  My plate just got more added to it at work, so we shall see.  But until next time, thank you guys and stay safe out there!