An Author’s Random Musing: Enola Holmes

When I first heard that Nancy Springer’s Enola Holmes series was getting a film adaptation, I was both thrilled and apprehensive. Thrilled because seldom do the books I love (mostly Historical Fiction as readers of my blog are aware) ever get adapted to film, unless they are classics like Jane Austen. Apprehensive because….

THE BOOKS ARE ALWAYS BETTER THAN THE MOVIE.

And, quite honestly, I’ve seen YA books get massacred in the process of being made to fit the big screen.

So I approached Enola Holmes with some trepidation. 

Enola Holmes Movie Poster

First, we will start with the obvious differences. The book series was written for a more middle grade audience. (Yes, I was the twenty something year old lurking the children’s shelves at the library, waiting for each new book to release.) Enola had just turned fourteen years old in the first book, and the series began in 1888. When her mother goes missing, she turns to her two estranged older brothers, Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes, for help. The threat of being sent to a boarding school to be turned into a lady is a looming threat through the whole series.

The film starts out with the same premise, however: Enola is aged up two years to sixteen and the film is set in 1884. In the course of the film, she is sent to a hilariously strict boarding school. (Honestly, the collars on those school uniforms are the funniest things in the movie and I’m not sure what historical basis they have?)

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On the whole, however, as an ADAPTATION, the film works. They made the changes they needed regarding age in order to work for a YA audience. Millie Bobby Brown captures Enola’s complicated mixture of charm and awkward teen. 

Millie Bobby Brown as Enola

 There were two points that annoyed me in the film. First, aging up Lord Tewksbury to be Enola’s age, from the two years younger in the first book to facilitate a romance that really wasn’t needed. And just how much of a villain they made Mycroft Holmes.

Mycroft Holmes was stuffy in the books, but he was so unlikable in the film. Which is a shame because I was always fond of him in the original series. Henry Cavill, on the other hand, shines as Sherlock Holmes: logical, standoffish, but still concerned for his sister, which is what he was in the series. 

And can I just say, Enola’s outfits through the film are gorgeous, even if not historically accurate. She is showing far too much chest for a day dress. And the corset she has is the prettiest one I have ever seen!

I would definitely recommend this, even if you haven’t read the books. It is a lot of fun and I am curious to see if they can hold onto the magic to adapt the second book, which is one of my personal favorites of the series.