Enola Holmes (2020)

It’s been quite a long time since I’ve seen a film within the first week of its release. This one is about the sixteen-year-old younger sister of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes in 1884. (The actress playing her part is Millie Bobby Brown, who is also 16. She’s been playing Eleven on “Stranger Things” and has earned a Primetime Emmy nomination as the outstanding supporting actress for that series.)

The Plot (from Wikipedia)

Enola Holmes is the youngest sibling and only daughter in the famous Holmes family. She is extremely intelligent, observant, and insightful, and defies the social norms for women of the time. Her father died when she was very little and her two older brothers, Mycroft and Sherlock, left home shortly after so neither of them have really met Enola. Nevertheless, her beloved mother, Eudoria, has taught her everything from chess to jujitsu and encouraged her to be a strong-willed, and independent thinking young woman.

On the day of her sixteenth birthday, Enola awakens to find her mother has disappeared, leaving behind only some birthday gifts. Enola meets her brothers, Mycroft and Sherlock, who fail to recognize her at first, not having seen her in many years. Sherlock finds her to be an intelligent girl, whereas Mycroft finds her troublesome and wild. As her legal guardian, Mycroft intends to send her away to a finishing school run by the stern Miss Harrison. The flowers left by her mother reveal secret messages and lead to hidden money, which Enola uses to escape disguised as a boy. On the train, she finds the young Viscount Tewkesbury hidden in a travel bag. She thinks he is a nincompoop but warns him that a man in a brown bowler hat (named Linthorn) is on the train, searching for him. They jump off the train to escape. Having no food Tewkesbury forages for edible plants. They travel to London, where they part ways.

Disguised as a proper Victorian lady, she continues to trace Eudoria and leaves cryptic messages in the newspaper personal advertisements. Enola discovers pamphlets and a safehouse containing explosives and learns that Eudoria is part of a radical group of suffragettes. She is attacked by Linthorn, who tortures her for information about Tewkesbury, attempting to drown her. They fight but she is able to ignite the explosives and escape. Enola decides to pause the search for her mother and instead find Tewkesbury again to save him, because he is not capable of defending himself. Enola visits the Tewkesbury estate at Basilwether Hall to learn more. Mycroft has Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard search for Enola.

Enola finds Tewkesbury selling flowers in Covent Garden and warns him of the danger. She helps him escape, but is caught by Lestrade and imprisoned in Miss Harrison’s finishing school by Mycroft. Sherlock visits her and admits he is impressed by her detective work. Tewkesbury sneaks into the school, and they escape together, stealing Miss Harrison’s motor car. They reach a fork in the road and, rather than returning to London, Enola decides they must go to Basilwether Hall and face his uncle, who she has deduced was trying to kill him. The estate is seemingly deserted, Linthorn ambushes them, firing a shotgun. Enola trips him using a jujitsu move, causing a fatal head injury. Tewkesbury’s grandmother is revealed as the real villain; a traditionalist, she did not want him to take his father’s place in the House of Lords and vote for the Reform Bill. She shoots Tewkesbury and Enola is heartbroken when she thinks he’s dead but he reveals he is wearing a bullet proof vest. Sherlock arrives at Scotland Yard, and Lestrade asks him two questions: firstly how he managed to solve the case, and secondly how his sister solved it first.

Enola deciphers a message she finds in the newspaper, but deduces it was not sent by her mother. At the meeting point, Sherlock and Mycroft discuss Enola and Sherlock suggests he might become her guardian. As they are about to give up and leave Sherlock notices an old toy Enola has left as a clue, and chooses not to look for her. All the while Enola has been watching disguised as a newsboy. Returning to her lodgings, Enola finds her mother waiting. They embrace, and Eudoria explains why she had to leave, and why she must leave again, but she expresses how impressed she is at what Enola has become. Enola has found her freedom and her purpose — she is a detective and a finder of lost souls.

And after you’ve watched this wonderful two hour film, may I suggest that you read this post by the Den of Geek. It will explain anything you might still need to know.