Here is where “Enola Holmes” really begins to feel like two movies functioning side by side, mostly in concert with each other. London through the eyes of cinematographer Giles Nuttgens (“ Colette,” “ Hell or High Water”) is an imposing, crowded cesspool of chaos, a sharp contrast from the lush colors and warm sunshine of the countryside. With his dark, floppy hair and sly smile, the appealing Partridge has a young Mick Jagger vibe about him, and he and Brown share a sprightly, hyper-verbal chemistry. And just like her, he doesn’t want to follow the posh path his family has laid out for him. When Enola travels by train to London to hunt down her mum, she ends up running into and inadvertently rescuing the Viscount Lord Tewksbury, Marquess of Basilwether ( Louis Partridge), who happens to be an escaped teenager, just like her. But while it takes place as legislators are considering women’s suffrage and Enola’s battle cry (handed down from her forward-thinking mother) is “Our future is up to us,” the film as a whole is mostly a light, family-friendly adventure, filled with secret codes to decipher and hidden treehouses in the woods. “And that is another thing that will have to be educated out of you,” he responds, in what will come to define the film’s true central conflict: the fight for female liberation in a patriarchal society that’s loath to evolve. “I don’t want a husband,” Enola informs Mycroft with conviction. ( Fiona Shaw is straight out of a Dickens novel as the prim and persnickety headmistress.) But while Sherlock seems to appreciate his little sister’s sharp mind and spry demeanor, Mycroft is mortified by how unkempt and uncouth she’s become, and insists on sending her to an uptight finishing school to turn her into a proper lady. Henry Cavill is the hunkiest Holmes ever-truly, it’s hard to imagine how he found time to hit the gym between solving crimes-and Sam Claflin literally gets a mustache to twirl as the snooty, scheming Mycroft. (As the coolest homeschool teacher ever, Carter is an inspiration to all us struggling parents.) But then she disappears suddenly as Enola turns 16, leaving her daughter to fend for herself with a series of cryptic clues and a couple of disapproving older brothers who’ve returned to check on her. And she and her thoroughly unorthodox mother (a well-cast Helena Bonham Carter) are exactly that as they prowl about their expansive country mansion doing whatever they please: painting, reading, even playing tennis and archery indoors. In the script from Jack Thorne, Enola notes that her name is “alone” spelled backward. “Cycling is not one of my core strengths,” she explains matter-of-factly as she dusts herself off, and we’re hooked. She looks straight into the camera and talks to us as she’s riding a bicycle over rolling hills and across vast fields of flowers-that is, until she bites it and lands face-first in the dirt. Emmy winner Harry Bradbeer brings an infectious energy to this stuffy setting by having Enola break the fourth wall from the get-go with amusingly self-aware asides, a tactic he used frequently on the many episodes of “Fleabag” he directed. Despite having a famous sibling, she’s very much her own person in the way she goes about playing detective. Based on the Young Adult novel series by Nancy Springer, “Enola Holmes” finds Sherlock’s younger sister stirring up trouble, solving mysteries and carving out her own place in wealthy Victorian England.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |