Henry Cavill, pictured above, portrays Sherlock Holmes in the film Enola Holmes (2020). Cavill is known for his roles in Superman (2013) and the television series “The Witcher.” In Enola Holmes (2020), Cavill reveals an emotional side of Sherlock Holmes that is rarely depicted in media (Courtesy of Gage Skidmore).
I’d be lying if I said that my housemates and I watched Enola Holmes (2020)—a movie that, we assumed based on the trailers, would follow the adventures of a “pick me girl” and contain dialogue riddled with internalized misogyny—for any reason other than Henry Cavill.
My friends and I understand and cherish the fact that we are like other girls, unlike the hypothetical Enola that we thought we’d be forced to watch on screen. We are, literally, other girls, so it follows that we would be opposed to an on-screen proponent of inter-female competition. Inevitably, the Henry Cavill factor overpowered this reluctance.
Cavill plays the older brother of Enola Holmes: Sherlock. This guaranteed the audience several scenes of Cavill in gentlemanly, late-1800s/early-1900s attire. Allow me to elaborate: Cavill, the man so ripped that the costume department for “The Witcher” struggled with the fact that his “muscles wore down the leather at such an alarming rate that replacements were constantly produced to meet the production's needs,” promised to don dashing suits and project a socially-acceptable chivalrous attitude. Yes, please.
So, those were our expectations. My housemates and I set the bar on the floor and didn’t expect Enola to throw it back in our faces. Enola Holmes (2020) …WTF!
The film begins by establishing a loving relationship between Enola, portrayed by Millie Bobby Brown, and her mother, Helena Bonham Carter’s Eudoria. Enola clearly imagines herself different from “other girls” at the beginning of the film, but that’s because she’s never been forced into the restrictive patterns that most women were subjected to during the late 1800s and early 1900s in order to exist in society.
Every male figure in Enola’s life has been absent until her 16th birthday, and Enola seems content with that. When Enola’s mother disappears, however, her brothers enter the picture and she’s suddenly bound by expectations that she’s unfamiliar with. It quickly becomes clear that Enola doesn’t actually think she’s above other women; she thinks she’s above the social restrictions placed upon women by men.
Enola’s brother Mycroft, played by Sam Claflin, is strict about the image that Enola must project as a woman. At one point, Mycroft forces Enola to attend a finishing school for young women against her will where Mycroft’s expectations would be enforced. Even there, though, Enola is reminded by her fellow female peers that women who act the way they’re expected to are granted access to higher places they might otherwise not have access to. Enola doesn’t blame the “other girls;” she learns to blame the system.
Don’t worry—Henry Cavill is just as beautiful as we imagined he would be, but the most wonderful part of his character was one we didn’t see coming. Could it be? Yes, that’s emotion cracking the stone of Sherlock Holmes’s otherwise eternal mask of logic and rationality. Male characters experiencing emotion is an act of feminism in itself because it challenges the stereotype that men must remain stoic and unfeeling.
Cavill’s character was not alone in reversing stereotypical gender roles. Enola’s love interest—Louis Partridge’s Tewkesbury—shamelessly expresses traditionally feminine interests such as herb gathering and flower identification. Because his nature was gentler and softer than Enola’s, our heroine subverts expectations and protects Tewkesbury. She herself is well-versed in the traditionally masculine skills of martial arts and problem-solving. This reversal of traditional roles allows the power balance of the film to even out. All characters were then able to speak to one another without the hindrance of societal confines.
If that wasn’t enough, the female characters themselves exceed expectations. Enola develops into a three-dimensional character with believable flaws, despite her redeeming qualities. Eudoria turns out to be flawed, too, and Enola must wrestle with the complexity inherent in learning that our parents are human beings.
My housemates and I ended up audibly shrieking with excitement at several plot points upon first watching this film. There is nothing that could have prepared us for the emotionally affecting nature of the relationships, character development and incredible acting that Enola Holmes (2020) is packed full of. You’ll have to give it a chance yourself, now—and hopefully, unlike me, you don’t need to go into it just for the benefit of Henry Cavill.