Year Released: 2020
Directed by: Harry Bradbeer
Starring: Millie Bobby Brown, Louis Partridge, Henry Cavill Sam Claflin, Helena Bonham Carter
(Pg-13, 123 min.)
Genre: Mystery, Adventure, Drama

“There are two paths you can take Enola. Yours, or the path others choose for you.” – Eudoria Holmes

A thoroughly delightful new spin on the Sherlock Holmes saga introduces Enola, the heretofore-unknown younger sister of Sherlock and Mycroft. She is a feisty, fiery feminist in the making, but she also has the great deductive powers of her brother.

Those qualities are stand alone magnificent, so why do the screenwriters and Netflix feel the need to demean most of the men in the film as faux foils? Indeed, that seems the way with too many recent films, such as Frozen , recently with the title character in Murdoch Mysteries, and in particular, Mad Max: Fury Road, where the titular star is reduced to being a hood ornament, his face hidden behind a steel mask that resembles a bear trap for almost half the film.

***

Mycroft Holmes (Sam Claflin), once lauded as Sherlock Holmes’s “Smarter Brother,” in the 1975 musical comedy starring Gene Wilder, is thoroughly demeaned here. He is a prissy misogynist, entirely motivated by Victorian Chauvinism and his own power. He dismisses not only his sister, but his mother as well:

“A wild and dangerous woman brought up a wild child.”

For Mycroft everything is about appearances and decorum. The first words out of his mouth when he meets his adolescent sister at the train, having been summoned with his brother by her to help find their suddenly absent mother, are to scold her about not wearing a hat and gloves to meet them.

Nor will he hold with 16-year-old Enola defining herself:

“I am a detective, I am a decipherer, and I am a finder of lost souls. My life is my own. And the future is up to us.” – Enola Holmes

She must meet his requirements, going to a grim finishing school where she will be made “acceptable for society,” and more importantly, for marriage:

Mycroft Holmes: You have no hope of making a husband in your current state.
Enola Holmes: I don’t want a husband
Mycroft Holmes: And that is another thing you need to have educated out of you.

And though Sherlock (Henry Cavill) is more *sympathetic, he, too, is demeaned. As Netflix trumpets on its website, it is Enola, not her prominent brother, who solves the mystery of her missing mother. (*An interesting and perverse side note: The Conan Doyle Estate is suing Netflix for copyright infringement, making Holmes sympathetic, rather than aloof and unemotional as portrayed in the original short stories and novels.)

The film sets Sherlock up for a fall early on, when Enola sings his praises:

Sherlock Holmes. The famous detective, scholar, chemist, virtuoso violinist, expert marksman, swordsman, singlestick fighter, pugilist, and brilliant detective thinker. My genius brother. He will have all the answers.

But poor Sherlock is always one step behind his little sister. Just when his skills and painstaking analysis lead him to coupe de grace, he finds Enola has already been there and moved on.

And then there is the “useless boy,” young Viscount Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge), whom Enola takes under her wing, defending him against those out to kill him. “You are a nincompoop,” she chides.

The closest he ever comes to a rejoinder is the stolid English understatement, “I’m not entirely an idiot.”

Not once, but at least 3 times she rescues him, once allowing herself to be captured rather than he. Her logic, though, is impeccable. If the young viscount is caught, he may very well be killed. She, however, only faces “imprisonment” in the malignant Miss Harrison’s finishing school.

Again, the female makes the heroic gesture; the passive male acquiesces.

Thus displaying one of Different Drummer’s chief complaints, number 6 on her Purely Personal Preferences list, somewhat like the numbered directives from Gibbs of NCIS fame.

6. Different Drummer feels manipulated when a film is merely a vehicle for political, social, or religious indoctrination.

And that is too bad, because Enola Holmes is, as we stated earlier, quite remarkable in her own right. She is like another great lady detective, Miss Fisher , of whom we said earlier,

Yes, she enthralls the feminists, but Phryne has something too few of them have. She is entirely charming, beguiling, and feminine, and not all afraid to use these qualities in any way possible to catch her culprits.

Enola’s remarkable blend of feminist bravado and playful intellect is best exhibited in her description of that Victorian instrument of female torture, the corset, which she dons to escape her brothers, who are looking for her disguised in boyish dress:

The corset: a symbol of repression to those who are forced to wear it. But for me, who chooses to wear it, the bust enhancer and the hip regulators will hide the fortune my mother has given me, and as they do so, they will make me look like that truly unlikely thing: a lady.

A thoroughly enjoyable romp, marred only by its too obvious bias against men. However, the bright light that issues from our new and absolutely charming Holmes heroine puts all that in the shadows of her effervescent self.

Definitely a must see.

–Kathy Borich"
🥁🥁🥁🥁

Trailer

Film-Loving Foodie

The game’s afoot. And this time it involves Enola Holmes, the younger sister of both Sherlock and Mycroft. Enola wants to find her mother, who has disappeared, but the brothers intend to tame this “wild child” and send her to finishing school. That is certainly not what Enola wants; nor did her unconventional mother, Eudoria.

She was not an ordinary mother. She didn’t teach me to string seashells, or practice my embroidery. We did different things. Reading, science, sports, all sorts of exercise, both physical, and mental.

So Enola runs away before they can “finish her off” at a place she regards as a prison. She has to evade the genius brother she has worshiped from a distance, but at times she is shrewd enough to use her association with him to wheedle information from others not so accepting of a young, female detective.

Lestrade, the rather bumbling Scotland Yard detective Holmes knows so well, does not think this young girl is who she says she is, the younger sister of the sleuth who solves crimes and allows Lestrade to take the credit if necessary.

So Enola has to prove she knows more about Holmes than he. Only Enola knows her brother’s favorite dessert, Plum Pie.

We have found a wonderful recipe for this luscious dish. And it is very easy to make. Perhaps even the completely undomesticated Enola could whip it up in between practicing her jujitsu and swordplay.

Enjoy.

Purple Plum Pie

Ingredients

· 4 cups sliced fresh plums

· 1/2 cup sugar

· 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

· 1/4 teaspoon salt

· 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

· 1 tablespoon lemon juice

· 1 (9 inch) unbaked deep dish pastry shell

Topping

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

3 tablespoons cold butter or margarine

Directions

In a bowl, combine the first six ingredients; pour into the pastry shell.

For topping, combine sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg in a small bowl; cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Sprinkle over filling.

Bake at 375 degrees F for 50-60 minutes or until bubbly and golden brown. Cover edges of crust during the last 20 minutes to prevent overbrowning. Cool on a wire rack.

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