Welcome back to Movie Recaps. Today I will show you a mystery, crime film from 2020, titled Enola
Holmes. Spoilers ahead! Watch out and take care. In the outskirts of England, the Holmes family
house can be found. The father died many years ago, and the older sons left shortly after,
so nowadays the only ones living there are the mother Eudoria, the youngest daughter Enola,
and a housekeeper. Enola's name is "alone" spelled backward because Eudoria is a big fan of word
games, and she wants Enola to be able to do well on her own. Enola's never gone farther than the
woods that surround the house, never been to the city or even a town, but that's alright because
Eudoria has given her all the education she needs: science, literature, sports, even self-defense.
The two of them are extremely close, but Eudoria still has some secrets she doesn't share: Enola
has found her having secret meetings with other women in the house. On the morning of Enola's
sixteenth birthday, she wakes up to find her mother has left in the middle of the night, only
leaving behind a very peculiar gift: a box with a little book about the language of flowers, a
decoder, and some cards she painted herself. This is why Enola is now going to the train station to
pick up her brothers Mycroft and Sherlock, the famous detective, hoping they'll help her find
the answers she seeks. It's been years since they've seen each other so the brothers don't
recognize her at first, but once introductions are made, things quickly get awkward. Mycroft is
incredibly judgemental of the state the house is in and, most importantly, of Enola's lack
of lady behavior and manners. Sherlock looks around their mother's room and comes to the
conclusion there wasn't foul play, Eudoria left on her own and she wasn't planning to return.
Later, Enola overhears her brothers talking while playing billiard. It turns out the house has been
Mycroft's, the oldest son, since their dad died, and Eudoria just asked to have it for sixteen
years to raise Enola. Mycroft hadn't seen Sherlock in months because he never cared about his family,
he's only showed up now because there's a mystery to solve. In Mycroft's opinion, the right thing
to do is to send Enola to a boarding school so she can learn to be a proper lady. The next day,
Miss Harrison arrives. She's a stern teacher hired by Mycroft to break and reshape his sister,
and Enola can't stand her. Miss Harrison wants to change her entire personality, and when Enola
doesn't hesitate to answer her condescension with strong words, Harrison even slaps her.
Enola begs Mycroft for mercy, but he's stuck in his ways, so she asks Sherlock for help instead,
but he claims he can't do anything because the law dictates she's Mycroft's ward. Hurt, Enola
calls him out for washing his hands on the issue, mentioning he's always ignored how Mycroft can be
cruel to their mother too. Needing a distraction, Enola leaves the house to do some sketching on
top of a tree. Sherlock finds her and joins her, sharing an anecdote from her childhood that she
didn't remember: Enola had a pinecone wrapped in wool called Dash that she dragged everywhere like
a dog. Enola calls out Sherlock again, saying he never visits, and when he tries to use the
work excuse, she points out he never writes her either. Sherlock calls Eudoria leaving a mystery,
which gets on Enola's nerves, but he reminds her not to be emotional if she wants to see the truth.
In the evening, Enola takes a new look at her gift to find that truth. Since Eudoria liked word
games, Enola begins rearranging the letters on her message and discovers her mother wants her to look
at a painting she made. Hidden behind the canvas, she finds an envelope with money and another card
painted by Eudoria. Enola takes this as a sign to take this seriously, so she escapes the house in
the middle of the night wearing Sherlock's old clothes. She arrives at the train station the
next day and notices the noble Tewkesbury family looking for their son. They don't board with her,
but their employee Linthorn does. When Enola finds an empty carriage, she discovers she isn't alone
after all: from inside a bag comes out a young man who turns out to be Viscount Tewkesbury.
He paid a porter to sneak him in so he could escape his family, but Enola doesn't care - she
doesn't want him to compromise her mission, so she kicks him out after warning him about Linthorn.
However, Tewkesbury returns seconds later, worried and scared because he saw Linthorn
checking out every carriage. Enola decides she'd be the one to leave the carriage instead then,
but she barely makes it a few steps away before she hears Linthorn attacking Tewkesbury.
Feeling guilty about not doing the right thing, she comes back and hits Linthorn with his cane,
stopping him from throwing Tewkesbury off the train. Enola catches him just in time
and they run through the corridors together, but as she realizes they have no escape,
there's only one thing left to do: when the train passes by a grassy area,
they jump off the train. Meanwhile, Sherlock is looking around the house for clues again,
thinking his sister disappearing is also part of the mystery. The housekeeper calls him out for
thinking like that the same way Enola did, and after mentioning the girl left her some money,
she asks Sherlock not to abandon his sister again because Mycroft's contacting the police
to find her. Back to the teenagers, they agree to go to London together. When the time comes
to camp for the night, Tewkesbury uses the foraging knowledge his dead father taught him
to find some edible plants. While they bond over their weird families and their fears of living
a life that isn't suited for them, Enola cuts Tewkesbury's hair so he's harder to identify.
In the morning, they hitch a ride to London, where they part ways. Having never visited the city,
Enola is quite overwhelmed, especially since there are many protesters on the streets
chanting in favor or against the Reform Bill that would allow women to vote, not to mention there
are signs everywhere with Tewkesbury's face, offering a reward for him. Enola decides the
first step is to acquire a disguise, and knowing how Mycroft would've described her to the cops,
she decides the perfect disguise is proper lady clothes. In the meantime, Sherlock has turned
down the case of Tewkesbury's disappearance because he wants to find his mother and sister.
Ignoring Mycroft's protest against that decision, Sherlock finds a clue in the news of two boys
jumping off the train. After acquiring lady clothes and renting a room for her stay in London,
Enola begins working on the next step of her plan. She publishes some cryptic messages in the
newspaper personal advertisements, then visits the only address Enola's ever seen Eudoria write to:
a teahouse. Once there, she hears some weird noises coming from the first floor and goes
upstairs to check it out, this is how she finds Edith's jujitsu academy for women. Edith had been
Enola's first teacher, and while Enola doesn't remember her from those days, she does realize
Edith is one of the women that attended Eudoria's secret meetings. Edith refuses to
share information about the kind of work Eudoria's involved in so Enola tries to get it out of her by
force, but she fails to do the special corkscrew move and Edith easily defeats her. Before leaving,
Enola sees a box full of dynamite with a logo that matches the box that was at her house during
Eudoria's secret meetings. Remembering some weird words she heard during those meetings,
Enola re-arranges the letters and obtains an address she wastes no time visiting. The
door she finds has a purple ribbon on its lock, matching the ones the women at the meeting wore.
Enola sneaks inside through the window and finds a lab, pamphlets, and boxes full of explosives
that make her realize Eudoria is the leader of a radical group of suffragettes. On her way out,
she's attacked by Linthorn, who pushes her inside a bucket of water to make her confess Tewkesbury's
whereabouts. Since he doesn't believe her when she says she doesn't know, Enola pretends to drown,
then attacks Linthorn when he's distracted. The two of them begin to fight, but when Enola fails
the corkscrew again, Linthorn pushes her into the lab and tries to stab her with a knife. Enola's
corset saves her from death, so then she uses the chemicals on the table to ignite the explosives
and escape. Now she knows Linthorn is in London, Enola feels a responsibility to warn Tewkesbury.
Disguised as a widow, she travels to his family's estate and tells them she's Sherlock's assistant.
Tewkesbury's mother almost believes it, but unfortunately, Inspector Lestrade, a close
friend of Sherlock's from Scotland Yard, is there and calls out her lie. They begin to argue so
Tewkesbury's mother kicks them out. Once outside, Enola asks the gardener about Tewkesbury's
favorite places and pays him to swap clothes with her. Meanwhile, Sherlock finds Edith too thanks
to some letters Eudoria had hidden in her chimney. Edith tells him Enola is fine but refuses to give
him any more information, pointing out Sherlock doesn't understand how important their work is.
When he explains he thinks politics are boring, Edith calls him out as another man that isn't
interesting in changing a world that suits him so well. Mycroft is having a little meeting of his
own too: Lestrade finds him to confirm the girl he saw was his sister, and Mycroft promises a good
reward if he catches her. Back to Enola, she goes into the forest and finds Tewkesbury's treehouse,
where he's left some fake clues about his destination in order to confuse his family.
However, she also finds a clue in a book about the real location, but her investigation is
interrupted by Tewkesbury's grandmother, The Dowager. The lady guides Enola out of the forest
while talking about how proud she is to have been given a part of England's glory and ideals to
protect. She calls Enola a "new thinker", pointing out that her son and grandson are the same.
Next, Enola goes to Covent Garden, where she finds Tewkesbury selling flowers.
She warns him about Linthorn and takes him away with her, unaware that signs with her face are
now on the streets too. When they make it to the hotel, Enola tells Tewkesbury that she saw clues
in the forest indicating that his father's death hadn't been an accident but murder, and now they
want to kill the son too for greedy reasons. Their conversation is suddenly interrupted by Lestrade,
who has come over after the seamstress Enola bought the dress from snitched on her for the
reward. After throwing a teapot at Lestrade, Enola takes Tewkesbury to her room, where they try to
keep the door closed with a chest. It won't hold long though, so Enola sacrifices herself and tells
Tewkesbury to escape through the window, because his death is much worse than her being sent to
a boarding school. Tewkesbury escapes safely while Enola is captured and sent to Mycroft,
who takes her money and yells at her, leaving her in tears. At the boarding school, Enola doesn't
really fit in, hating every class consisting of how to be a proper lady and get a husband.
At nights, her room is always kept locked by Miss Harrison, who likes to remind Enola
her mother abandoned her and never truly cared for anything besides her cause. One afternoon,
Enola is visited by Sherlock, who tells her he's found Edith and the lab but not Eudoria yet.
Enola yells at him, tired of being treated like a clue, so Sherlock confesses he does care for her,
which earns him some teasing from Enola for being unusually emotional. Sherlock also knows about her
involvement in the Tewkesbury's case, but the real reason he came over is to give Enola old Dash,
which Eudoria had kept under her pillow. This is the proof Enola needed to be sure her mother
does care. Before leaving, Sherlock leaves Enola today's paper, which talks about the lords voting
soon. She's starting to see a clue when she's interrupted by a delivery sent by Mycroft: a
giant, heavy basket. When she opens it, she finds Tewkesbury there, who came to save her. Enola
hides inside the basket and Tewkesbury takes her out of the room only to be found by Miss Harrison,
so Tewkesbury uses the Mycroft lie again and says this is a gift he sent Harrison to only be opened
in private. The basket is taken to Harrison's office, and when she goes there later to open it,
she only finds a silly cartoon Enola has left her. It turns out Enola has escaped through the window,
and after meeting Tewkesbury outside, they escape in Harrison's car. They're supposed to return to
London, but Enola decides that to solve this case they to take a risk and confront Tewkesbury's
family. She's sure the culprit behind this is the uncle, who wants Tewkesbury's seat at the
voting because the son, just like his father, is planning to vote in favor of the reform.
Night has fallen by the time they make it to the mansion. Surprisingly, there's nobody around,
which means they're expected. Linthorn suddenly appears and opens fire with a rifle,
so the duo hides behind statues. When Linthorn comes closer, Enola jumps on him to attack him,
but Linthorn knocks her out. Tewkesbury attacks him next but also fails, so Linthorn gets ready
to kill him by asphyxiation. Fortunately, Enola then wakes up and attacks again, finally pulling
off the corkscrew move that causes Linthorn to fall and hit his head against the banister,
dying after saying he works for England. At that moment, the real culprit shows up: The Dowager.
She killed her son and now wants her grandson gone too in order to protect the country's traditions.
The Dowager shoots Tewkesbury and Enola cries over his body, believing him to be dead,
but actually, he's just fine: Tewkesbury had put on a piece of armor from one of the statues
while Enola was fighting Linthorn. Seeing herself surrounded, The Dowager surrenders. The next day,
Sherlock visits Lestrade to tell him he's discovered The Dowager is the culprit, which
he figured out by following some clues from the newspapers. Lestrade informs him Enola's already
solved the case, which makes Sherlock proud. Meanwhile, Enola receives an offer from Tewkesbury
and his mother to stay with them, but she turns it down because she must keep on looking for Eudoria,
although she does accept the reward money. After promising Tewkesbury that they'll see
each other again in the future, Enola buys the newspaper and finds a cryptic message that is
signed as "mother". She quickly guesses this is a trap from Sherlock but goes to
the meeting place anyway, keeping her distance while watching her two brothers wait for her.
Mycroft, who is in a bad mood because Tewkesbury's vote has helped the reform be accepted,
quickly gives up and accepts Sherlock's offer to make Enola his ward before asking to leave.
On their way out, Sherlock sees Dash on a nearby statue and knows his sister has been there all
along. When Enola returns to the new hotel she's staying at, she finds a huge surprise in her room:
Eudoria is there waiting for her. The two of them hug and Eudoria explains she didn't leave
because she didn't care, she left because she wanted to make a better world for her daughter.
She'll soon leave again to keep on fighting, but she tells Enola she's proud of everything
she's done. Enola is fine with this because now she's found her own purpose,
just like her mother and her brothers did: she'll be a detective and a finder of lost souls.