DO NOT WATCH THIS FILM
I was honestly excited for this film and on the surface it’s not a bad movie. It’s entertaining and has enough intrigue to keep you engaged but here are a list of reasons why you shouldn’t watch or support Enola Holmes in any way.
1. The Social ‘Commentary’
The film is trying to show how powerful and strong Enola is, how she doesn’t need any men to protect her, how she finds it hard to match the gender norms especially with the dressing of the time. She is judged for her bust and hip size, which is kind of weird to include in a film about minors in the first place, but on top of that, she then wears a corset to seem ‘lady-like’ anyways like 10 minutes after this great ‘satire’ is displayed, after which the director, who is a man of course proceeds to zoom in on her bosom more times than Micheal Bay did with Megan Fox in Transformers EXCEPT MILLIE BOBBY BROWN IS 16 YEARS OLD. Her mother, who is characterized as a strong feminist who is fighting for the suffragete movement is also planning a terrorist attack on the House of Lords? OH OH OH and in the end she is saved from a boarding school by guess who? A MAN. She falls madly in love with a boy she’s just met after claiming she doesn’t need a husband or any companion like 20 minutes earlier. She gets out of most situations by plot convenience or luck instead of actually being resourceful or smart. I’m not saying don’t make media with female protagonists, we have amazing stuff like Little Women and Fleabag for that.
2. The Character Assassination of Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock is hot in this movie so a lot of people will be distracted by that but he doesn’t really do anything and is constantly one step behind a 16 year old girl. While this may be interesting for the premise of the film, Sherlock Holmes is the world’s greatest detective, it is quite hilarious that he’s constantly being outsmarted by a 16-year old girl. AND JESUS CHRIST WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO MYCROFT? He’s gone from being Sherlock’s smarter and more resourceful older brother to ‘Look at me, I’m evil manly man and I want to suppress women’s rights!” which was never Mycroft’s agenda in the books but yes its open to interpretation but there’s a line between creative liberties and creating a new character with the same name.
3. The Terrible Writing and a Shower of Mediocrity
The writing is really bad in this film, when its not checking off feminism buzzwords, it’s writing plot-twists and lucky situations that are both implausible but also downright annoying. It’s no surprise that its written by the genius behind Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. I kid you not there’s a scene where a grandma tries to shoot her grandson and he’s conveniently wearing a suit of armour or something under his shirt? It’s so dumb and it’s played off as a moment of genius. Can we also talk about how forced Millie’s Fleabag or Deadpool-esque fourth wall breaking is to a point where its just exposition. It tells us nothing new and completely throws ‘show, don’t tell’ out of the window.Don’t be fooled by the Rotten Tomatoes 90% rating. Almost 90% of the critics are men, and most of the negative reviews are from women. The forced agenda and grotesque disfigurement of beloved characters and female protagonists is horrible and this film should not be supported.
Reviewland by Arnav 