Explosive action scenes, a sympathetic Sherlock, and teen romance are just some of the biggest
changes the Enola Holmes movie made when adapting the original novels.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers, I'm Jan and in this video we're exploring 11 major differences
between the Netflix movie and Nancy Springer's Enola Holmes book, The Case of the Missing
Marquess.
Film and book spoilers ahead, so take care.
During interviews for the movie, Henry Cavill has spoken about how his Sherlock diverges
from what he calls "the traditional misogynistic genius" we're
used to seeing as "Enola softens [him] and opens up his heart."
This is very different from the way Sherlock's portrayed in Springer's first Enola Holmes
mystery as well.
In the book, the world famous detective certainly has a low opinion of women,
banging on about their irrationality, untrustworthiness, the "innate untidiness" of their minds,
and even his own sister Enola's limited "cranial capacity".
And book-Sherlock certainly never reminisces about his memories of Enola's childhood and
her pine-cone dog Dash, as Cavill does in the film.
Making Sherlock more openly sympathetic towards his sister in the movie, and giving him, as
Cavill says, "more warmth, kindness, and humanity"
"You've become quite the detective Enola."
creates a sharper contrast between him and Mycroft than in the novel where the brothers
are pretty much as curt and imperious as each other,
both passing plenty of judgement on Enola, her mother, and how they live.
And, although we do see some similarities between Sherlock and Enola in the novel,
with her even deliberating mimicking him a few times,
the fact that in some ways they're like two peas in a pod, as Cavill says, is emphasised
more in the film.
Sherlock even ends up wanting to be his sister's guardian, which really accelerates the way
he grows to respect Enola which happens much later in the series of six books.
The movie adds lots more action and intrigue to the already very enjoyable original story.
For example, Enola and Tewksbury cross paths in much different circumstances in the film
than in the book where they only meet three-quarters of the
way through the story when they're kidnapped and tied up on a boat in London before escaping
and being chased through the streets of the capital.
In the movie, however, Tewksbury pops up much earlier, a mere 20 minutes into the film's
2-hour run time, when he tumbles out of a carpetbag and then
he and Enola end up being pursued by a man trying to murder him before they make a daring
escape from a moving train.
Tewksbury's early on-screen introduction brings the mystery of his disappearance forward in
the story and means that he and Enola spend much more time together than in the book
where Enola travels alone to London by train dressed as a widow rather than as a young
boy.
The film also adds masses of intrigue to Tewsbury's tale.
In the original story, Tewky, as his mother calls him, hates being treated like a baby
and wants to run away to sea, so leaves for London where two men kidnap
him to get ransom money from his mum and dad, both of whom are still alive.
Unlike the movie, there's no big conspiracy involving his grandmother
trying to have her progressive son and grandson murdered to prevent them from increasing voting
rights among the general population.
By adding the grandmother's scheming to the plot,
the film raises the stakes putting Tewksbury and Enola's life in mortal danger on several
occasions and also having the fate of the country's progress rest in their hands.
Extra drama is also added to the story of Enola's mother in the film.
Eudoria is described as a "free thinker [and] a proponent of female suffrage" in the book,
but there's no gunpowder plot or any clues to a store of explosives in Limehouse Lane.
And although Enola is attacked and kidnapped on the streets of London, there's no attempted
drowning or literally explosive fight scene like in the movie.
Another interesting difference is that in the book one of Enola and Tewksbury's London
kidnappers actually plays a dual role as he also masquerades as a female medium
who first claims she can help Tewksbury's family find their missing son and later recommends
they pay the large ransom when the demand arrives.
The film sees Mycroft pack Enola off to his friend Miss Harrison's Finishing School for
Young Ladies, where she's taught how to walk, speak, laugh, and sew, as well as to act and
think as she's told.
This is another change from the books where there's no Miss Harrison character and Enola
never goes to boarding school.
Though book-Mycroft does arrange to send Enola away to school to correct her wild ways,
Enola tricks everyone into thinking she's leaving for school, then runs away to continue
her search for her missing mother instead.
Right at the start of the movie, Enola turns to the camera and speaks directly to us in
the audience: "Now, where to begin?"
While in the novel, she doesn't talk straight to us readers in the same way, the story is
told from her point of view.
So the film's choice to have her break the fourth wall throughout, giving us a running
commentary on her adventures, is a nice way of bringing to life how the book is told through
Enola's eyes.
And characters connecting directly with their audiences in that way is something director
Harry Bradbeer certainly has plenty of experience with from his work on the TV series Fleabag,
where creator and star Phoebe Waller-Bridge regularly tears down the fourth wall.
In fact, it was while watching Fleabag that screenwriter Jack Thorne got the idea to use
that device in the movie as a way to "get inside the mind of someone who spends
the majority of [her] time alone."
In Bradbeer's mind, the main reason to break the fourth wall was Enola's loneliness as
that "meant that we were her only friend, she needed to communicate with us."
A striking difference between the original story and the film is the way the movie plays
up a blossoming romance between Enola and Tewksbury,
who's aged up from 12 years old in the book where there's no real hint of any such crush.
In the film, Tewksbury even knows Enola's true identity;
whereas in the book, she deliberately never tells him who she really is,
and he only discovers she's related to Sherlock Holmes by accident.
Book-Enola even disappears from Tewksbury's life without so much as a goodbye as she suddenly
has to avoid being caught by her brother.
She does "rather regret having to leave Tewky so abruptly" and there are pointers towards
a possible friendship between the two and little hints at their similarities like
their reasons for running away and the hard lessons they learn about the lives of the
poor in London.
But there's nothing in the novel like Tewksbury's invitation for Enola to live with his family,
or their parting kiss, or any of the clear signals that they're very
much kindred spirits and that Louis Partridge's Tewksbury will pop up again in the new film
franchise, unlike his book counterpart who only appears
in the first story: "You're not rid of me yet, Viscount Tewkesbury,
Marquess of Basilwether."
Enola's relationship with her mother is much closer in the film than it is in the book.
In the movie, Enola tells us that they spent a lot of time together and that her mum taught
her much of what she knows, including reading, science, and sports:
"It was just the two of us, and it was wonderful."
In the book, however, while her mother encourages her daughter's reading, drawing, and general
independence, and even taught her to ride a bike,
Enola specifically says that "Mum and I seldom interfered in one another's concerns."
Given the movie cast well-known actress Helena Bonham Carter as Enola's mother though, it's
hardly surprising that the filmmakers decided to expand on the mother-daughter relationship.
And beefing up their familial bond and their activities together also gives Enola a backstory
that's more visually interesting than sitting reading or wandering around the estate's grounds
alone, which is how she tells us she spent a lot
of time in the book.
In the original story, Enola attributes at least part of the emotional
distance between herself and her mum to the fact she was born what she calls "indecently
late" in her mother's life, creating "a scandal, a burden".
In fact, when Eudoria goes missing in the novel, she's 64 years old, and Enola is 14.
At the time of filming, Bonham Carter was 53,
and while she wasn't visibly aged up to play Eudoria,
the movie does increase Enola's age slightly, making her 16 years old,
which is the same age as actress Millie Bobby Brown at the film's release in 2020.
The filmmakers are very likely hoping to kick off a franchise with this using the six books
in the series, so it makes sense for Brown not to have to
play a very young teenager for what could be several years as she grows up.
A significant change when it comes to the end of the story is that there's no emotional
reunion between Enola and her mum by the final chapter of the book.
Instead, things are left relatively up in the air,
with Enola simply receiving a coded message from her mum in a newspaper,
which she interprets using the language of flowers as meaning that Eudoria is living
a contented life, "wandering, free" with Gypsies.
In stark contrast, the movie has Eudoria turn up unexpectedly at Enola's rented room in
London to explain her absence.
"I couldn't bear... to have this world be your future.
So I had to fight."
This somewhat teary scene wraps up the mother's story just about enough for now and possibly
even enough for future films if the filmmakers or Bonham Carter decide
against bringing the character back; yet it also leaves things open enough if everyone
wants her to return: "Thank you for your irises.
Now, if you ever... ever need me, I'll be looking out for them."
Now, if like me, you can't wait for another Enola Holmes film, there were some huge clues
in the movie's ending that reveal what we can look forward to in the sequel.
Tap here to watch my full video on that or follow the link in the video description.
So, what were your favourite moments in the film?
And was there anything you didn't like?
Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
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Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!