5 Things that Netflix’s Enola Holmes Movie Awakened In Me
Rating: 8.9/10 — loved Enola’s character and the plot!
Enola Holmes is a mystery movie now available on Netflix. Her name should sound familiar — her brother is the famous Sherlock Holmes. It shocked me, though, that she’s never appeared in the other famous renditions of Sherlock, from BBC’s Sherlock with Benedict Cumberbatch to Elementary with Jonny Lee Miller.
I wonder — is she a canon character?
Either way, this coming-of-age movie about her story awakened several thoughts, and I’m so glad to have watched this movie.
[1] Honouring overshadowed women
The promotional tactics for this movie have been so interesting. Besides the usual avenues of recommending this movie to viewers based on their preferences, Netflix brought advertising back into the real world.
They erected various statues around the UK to honour real women whose achievements. This included Frances Dickens (sister of Charles Dickens) and Princess Helena Victoria (sister of King Edward VII).
This promotional tactic alone has awoken in me whether there were stories we never really heard of or how we might discuss women’s achievements as coupled as the counterpart of a man’s achievements.
Though Enola Homes is not a canon character (I looked it up later) written into Arthur Conan Doyle’s books, her characterization is refreshing through the plot of this movie.
This movie has reawakened in me the fight to continue learning about and honouring women who have been forgotten in history.
[2] Coming of age piece — finding yourself
When her mother left suddenly, without giving Enola clear instructions on what happened, it was hard for her to figure out how to navigate the world. Yet, she figured it out based on the training her mother provided throughout her childhood.
The notion that training or not, we have the ingredients in us to become who we want to be is an empowering one. Sure, her mother taught her the basic skills to be a detective, but her personality is described as clumsy and illustrated as clumsiness.
It was how these skills and these personality characteristics come together that made her successful.
We can only work with the ingredients we already have, after all. Or, make plans, using what we already have to gain new skills.
This movie awakened in me a challenge to press on despite the obstacles because sometimes, forward in time is the only way to go.
[3] Cryptic messages — hobbies in the past
One of my favourite aspects of this story is that she has to undergo a series of decoding messages that her mother had supposedly left. Some of these are cryptic messages based on some pre-established code her mother had taught her.
It reminded me of how decoding coded messages was one of the things we did during recess. I wonder if it’s a lost art now?
While I lived in an era where some of my friends had phones at school with them, enough of us didn’t have one or had expensive pay-per-text plans that we still passed physical notes. You know, on physical paper.
To be secretive, we’d each have codes (or at the very least, code words) to hide what we were talking about, in case the message was intercepted.
I wonder if this is something kids still do, and in what form? What motivates them to do it now?
This movie awakened me the nostalgia of childhood hobbies that I’m not even sure exist with technology so easily addressing the same need.
[4] That transition into understanding how politics underlies a lot of what happens to us
One of the coming-of-age moments that Enola goes through is her realization that her mother wasn’t just some stay-at-home renaissance woman with a billion cool skills she taught her. Rather, her mother was actively supporting feminist movements, changing the world behind-the-scenes through organizing via letters.
When we’re young, perhaps we’re oblivious to the political forces at hand. I remember thinking at one point that newspaper-reading, politics and prime Ministers were all things that only adults had to worry about. That illusion breaks for most of us when pieces of politics come to touch our lives.
For the Gen Z, I’m seeing this happen far earlier than it happened to my generation. With access to TikTok and an impending climate crisis, I’m seeing a lot more Gen Z climate activists being more vocal than ever, calling for change.
This really contrasts seeing some adults who still employ the “no politics, too messy” point of view and mute / block accounts that talk about anything political. I’m increasingly realizing that comes with that incredible privilege.
There will come a point where politics touches our lives, as it did with Enola’s story where finding a missing person was intertwined with a lot more political and familial conflict than she had first expected. There will come a time when the laws being voted on will be related to whether or not “someone like us” gets seen, accepted, vs. persecuted, criminalized.
This movie awakened in me the need to not push politics aside — that comes with significant privilege — and the need to acknowledge how it differentially affects different groups of people. We can take breaks from needing to consume media ABOUT politics 24/7, but to completely ignore its effects is irresponsible.
[5] Not every different-gender friendship needs to blossom into a romance line
Perhaps I’m starting a folder of movies where a different-gender friendship doesn’t blossom into a romance line. It’s so important — especially in a story that’s focus on Enola’s growth as a detective and her search for her mother.
I wrote about this in my review of Hospital Playlist:
The most refreshing part of this is being able to see a scene where this is actively debunked; where the male friend acted to protect the female friend just as a female friend would, without having it “come from a place from wanting to date her”.
It’s refreshing to just see different-gender friendships blossom without the undertone of them becoming romantic partners.
I see this theme in Studio Ghibli movies and would be so ecstatic to see more of these narratives be featured.
This movie re-awakened in me the discussion of encouraging more writers, in books and TV and movies, to depict non-romantic relationships between different-gender friendships. They can truly be so valuable.
The takeaway
This movie was a great watch and encouraged me to reflect on several things. From honoring overshadowed women to finding yourself, remembering old hobbies, re-igniting discussions surrounding politics, and building non-romantic different-gender friendship lines. I’m sure that what I saw in this movie can be quite different from others!
Would you watch this movie? If you have already, what aspects stood out to you?
Hi, I’m Lucy Dan 蛋小姐 (she/her/她) and I’m on a mission to think critically about every piece of media I consume, rather than passively using it to pass time. It’s actually been really fun so far and has generated some unique discussions with my friends!
Hop down the rabbit hole? 🐰🕳