Enola Holmes (2020)

Once the charm of good acting and the dazzle of the colorful photography wears off, you are left with a vapid film, with so many plotholes and so little plot.

First, what's the premise of this film? A girl grows up with her mother; one day the mother leaves; the girl goes after the mother and doesn't find her; the Reform Bill gets ratified. The End.

Second, the film has a claim of being a Sherlock Holmes derivative, but none of its characters adhere to that canon. The kindhearted, unambitious, lazy Mycroft has become a rich, scheming oppressor with no agenda. Lestrade has become a shifty character and Mycroft's lackey. Sherlock does not have any assistants, not even John Watson! He works alone! It is not even a mystery film. It is part comedy, part pseudo-history, part action, part feminism, and part word play. (It is not good at either.)

Third, the original character Enola Holmes is self-contradictory at best. When a stranger man (Linthorn) strikes her, she retaliates with fists and fire. When a stranger woman (Miss Harrison) attacks her, she cries like a baby. She surrenders herself to give the person she loves a chance to escape, like a strong woman. She cries for being caught, like a baby, apparently not remembering that it was her own choice. Other characters are even more farcical. Miss Harrison travels alone to a remote country house, proceeds to take the measures of one of its occupants, insults her and slaps her, without having the superior strength or any authority over her. In Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, the likes of Miss Harrison get murdered. In the real world, they get beaten up or sent to prison.

Fourth, the villain's primary means of impeding Enola Holmes is omniscience. He just knows where Enola is going; no satellites, drones, smartphone intercepts or GPS needed.

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