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Enola Holmes
Movie

Enola Holmes

2020 • Unknown

Woke Score
4
out of 10

Plot

While searching for her missing mother, intrepid teen Enola Holmes uses her sleuthing skills to outsmart big brother Sherlock and help a runaway lord.

Overall Series Review

The movie centers on a critique of Victorian-era England's restrictive gender norms and social expectations. The narrative is explicitly a feminist political statement, revolving around Enola's quest for independence while searching for her suffragette mother. The film portrays traditional institutions, such as marriage and finishing school, as fundamentally oppressive to women. The primary conflict involves a conservative conspiracy to maintain the status quo by opposing a progressive Reform Act. Enola is depicted as an exceptional heroine who instantly masters complex skills like martial arts and deduction, repeatedly outsmarting her older brothers, Sherlock and Mycroft, who represent either indifferent competence or outright patriarchy. While the film is a political vehicle focused heavily on gender, it is notably light on themes of racial identity politics, explicit LGBTQ+ ideology, or anti-theism.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics3/10

The plot focuses heavily on gender and class-based oppression within Victorian society rather than race. A prominent Black suffragette character is included who delivers a pointed lecture to Sherlock about his privilege in a world that suits him. The main cast is largely white, but the narrative does incorporate an intersectional view through the class/gender lens and the inclusion of an activist character who critiques the establishment from a non-white perspective.

Oikophobia8/10

The central conflict frames the existing English social and political order of the time as corrupt and oppressive, suggesting the institutions of its civilization are inherently flawed and need to be overthrown for 'progress'. The conservative elements of the ruling class are depicted as literal murderers attempting to suppress an important political reform. Traditional English heritage, represented by institutions like the finishing school and the House of Lords, is positioned as the primary antagonist against individual freedom.

Feminism9/10

The movie is a clear vehicle for a 'Girl Boss' narrative. Enola is a 'Mary Sue' character who is instantly brilliant at deduction and fighting (jiujitsu), surpassing her male contemporaries, including the legendary Sherlock, whom she actively works to 'outsmart'. Traditional femininity and marriage are explicitly framed as an 'oppression' and a 'prison'. The mother, Eudoria, is an anti-natalist figure who abandons her home and daughter to pursue her political cause, validating the path of radical activism over family responsibility as the higher moral good.

LGBTQ+1/10

The narrative does not center on or include overt LGBTQ+ characters, relationships, or political messaging related to sexual ideology or gender identity. The focus of the gender conflict is strictly on the roles of biological males and females in a patriarchal society. The normative family structure is deconstructed via the feminist lens of opposing motherhood and marriage, but not through a queer theory framework.

Anti-Theism1/10

There is no significant presence of anti-theistic themes, hostility toward religion, or vilification of Christian characters. The moral conflict of the movie is entirely secular, focusing on political reform and social gender roles. The film's moral framework leans toward subjective freedom and self-determination over transcendent moral law, but this is implied and not directed at religion itself.