Enola Holmes earns top spot in South Africa on Netflix

Enola Holmes is, according to The New York Times, “beyond ordinary and not your ‘dear'”. We have to say, that sums it up quite succinctly. Here’s why it’s currently the most-watched film on Netflix.

“On the surface, “Enola Holmes” is about a young woman in search of herself, but the film’s value comes from a deeper investigation of power, familial bonds and the risks of changing a world determined to stay the same”.

Lovia Gyarkye

Enola Holmes on Netflix

Plot and storyline

Enola Holmes is an American mystery film set in Sherlock Holmes’ universe. It follows intrepid teen Enola Holmes as she searches for her missing mother, intrepid uses her sleuthing skills to outsmart big brother, Sherlock.

Enola is the youngest sibling in the Holmes family, and is described as a “free-wheeling, strong-willed and boundary-pushing young woman”. As per the Enola Holmes extended plot:

“She is extremely intelligent, observant, and insightful, and she defies the social norms for women of the time. Her mother, Eudoria, has taught her everything from chess to jujitsu. Her mother also made her read every book in Ferndell Hall, their home, and was a big fan of word games”.

Watch: ‘Enola Holmes’ Netflix trailer

‘Enola Holmes’ cast and characters

• Millie Bobby Brown as Enola Holmes, the youngest sibling in the famous Holmes family.
• Henry Cavill as Sherlock Holmes, the second-oldest of the Holmes siblings.
• Sam Claflin as Mycroft Holmes, the eldest of the Holmes siblings and Enola’s legal guardian.
• Helena Bonham Carter as Eudoria Holmes, the matriarch of the Holmes family.
• Louis Partridge as Tewkesbury
• Burn Gorman as Linthorn
• Adeel Akhtar as Lestrade
• Susie Wokoma as Edith
• Hattie Morahan as Lady Tewkesbury
• David Bamber as Sir Whimbrel
• Fiona Shaw as Miss Harrison
• Frances de la Tour as The Dowager, Tewkesbury’s grandmother

Critically acclaimed

Millie Bobby Brown brought the Enola, who incidentally isn’t a character in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s canon, to life with aplomb. In Doyle’s original work, Sherlock Holmes has only other sibling, his brother Mycroft.

Even then, Mycroft only appears in The Greek Interpreter, The Bruce-Partington Plans, and The Final Problem, anyway. Enola is entirely the creation of Nancy Springer.

That said, the idea that Holmes had a third sibling is a fan-fic conspiracy nearly as old as Sherlock himself. Rumour has it that Doyle wanted to use the name Sherrinford Holmes for the sister.

The film received mostly good reviews, with Variety’s Peter Debruge calling it an “entertaining franchise starter”, while the Hollywood Reporter said it “successfully imagines a place for its heroine in Holmes’ world”.

 “[Enola Holmes] convinces young viewers that Enola needn’t be constrained by that world’s borders.”