Enola Holmes

Based on the young adult novels by Nancy Springer, Enola Holmes introduces us to the teenage sister of Sherlock Holmes (Henry Cavill). Taking much of its plot from the first novel of Springer's series, The Case of the Missing Marquess, there are two mysteries here for the precocious Enola Holmes (Millie Bobby Brown) to unravel in both solving the sudden disappearance of her mother (Helena Bonham Carter) and discovering the identity of who is behind the attempted assassination of a friend (Louis Partridge) she meets on the road.

Millie Bobby Brown is the highlight here as a Victorian Nancy Drew who overcomes several obstacles, often breaking the fourth wall to talk directly to the audience, while searching for answers and attempting to prevent her brother Mycroft (Sam Claflin) from imprisoning her in a soul-crushing finishing school for girls of her age who hope for nothing more than to please a husband. Henry Cavill co-stars as an aloof version of Sherlock in his early years prior to meeting Dr. Watson. Sherlock loves his much younger sister, even if he can't find a proper way to express that emotion most of the time.

The script is lightweight fare, with a couple of scenes that could be borderline too violent for the target audience. Enola Holmes leaves some rather large questions unanswered (such as what exactly was the plan of Enola's mother?). Given the dual mysteries here, and all the world building necessary to introduce us to Enola and this version of Sherlock and company, the film feels a bit overstuffed with a running time over two hours which led to me looking at my watch more than a few times when the story started to drag. Still, there's plenty of room in the expanded Sherlock Holmes universe for Enola and there's enough here to suggest, with so much of the heavy lifting done here, that a second film could be even more successful.

• Title: Enola Holmes
• IMDb: link