In my last post, I waxed eloquent about the random way in which I choose a movie or show to watch. There are some exceptions, however. Anything remotely connected to the greatest detective on Earth takes precedence over everything else.
Unfortunately, most modern adaptations leave much to be desired. I prefer adaptations where the soul of the original work has been preserved. The soul of Star Trek is ‘to seek out new life and new civilizations’ (and preferably not beat them to a pulp every 20 mins), the soul of Star Wars is the Force and how the Jedi use it and the soul of Sherlock Holmes is finding impossibly intricate mysteries in everyday, trivial matters. What we see in many modern adaptations is all of this getting sacrificed for breakneck action and CGI with a plot that is a generic action packed thriller. Thanks to CGI, the camera moves at impossible speeds and angles and with 20 cuts/minute, you soon lose track of who is hitting whom and how the fight is progressing. To be fair, even the original works had some action but that was a consequence of the plot and did not hog the screen all the time.
Enola Holmes 2 manages to preserve the originality of the Victorian life with just enough anachronism to bring out the biases of the era. Full credit to the writers Harry Bradbeer and Jack Thorne for writing a story that deals with a major event of the era – the 1888 Bryant & May Matchgirls’ strike, led by Sarah Chapman. The plot revolves around disappearance of Sarah Chapman (Hannah Dodd) who works at a matchbox factory. Her little sister Bessie (Serrana Su-Ling Bliss) employs Enola Holmes (Millie Bobby Brown) to find her.
While the story has enough action to keep things interesting – the movie starts with Enola being chased by two police officers – it also has its quiet moments, when Enola and her brother Sherlock (Henry Cavill) puzzle over little clues, cyphers, a letter that contains a secret address and a badly written musical sheet that turns out to be a map to secret documents. This is the very much in line with classic Sherlock Holmes stories – The Adventure of the Dancing Men (coded message) or The Adventure of the Second Stain (document hidden in secret compartment).
Enola Holmes is a tricky character both to write and perform. The first movie was based on the book by Nancy Springer and was about Enola finding herself and using her deduction powers to find her mother. The second movie is not based on the book series and there is a delicate balance here between Enola and Sherlock sharing the centre stage. Sherlock cannot be seen solving this on his own because then that will be yet another Sherlock adventure. You cannot leave Sherlock out of the story because it happens in London and Sherlock is already a celebrity detective. Enola has to show enough creativity and initiative so that is remains her story.
As with the first movie, Millie Bobby Brown steals the show. She also has the added responsibility of being a co-producer of the movie. She is constantly breaking the fourth wall to look into the camera and speak directly with the audience, informing them of plot developments and making snide and/or funny remarks. Henry is a wonderful older brother, slowly coming to terms with the capabilities of his sister. Mama Holmes aka Eudoria Holmes (Helena Bonham Carter) also makes a delightful appearance, engaging in activities that would seem strictly non-Victorian. Her antics with Enola are reminiscent of those rare photographs of Victorian era people goofing around.
The banter between Enola and her brother is delightful. At one point, Sherlock begins his usual spiel commenting on Enola’s appearance and his deductions and Enola cuts him off, saying, “We are not playing that game.” With Mama Holmes doing her bit, the brother-sister duo look set for a long series of adventures, as Enola’s character develops.
After each viewing of a successful Sherlock adaptation, I once again marvel at the genius of their creator, the man who started it all, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The Sherlock Holmes canon has to be one of the most important literary works in the last century. 100+ years later, people are still not tired of the great detective. Producers continue to invest millions of dollars in Holmes stories. The critics love them, and the people are hungry for more. How do you create such a long lasting character?
One of my pet theories about the popularity of Holmes is that he is a superhero that you can hope to emulate. You cannot shoot webs like Spider-Man but what Holmes does is so deceptively simple that we feel that even we can be Holmes if we just apply his methods. Indeed, Holmes himself encourages it, “You know my methods, Watson.” In The Red-Headed League, after hearing Holmes’ explanation of his deductions, Mr. Jabez Wilson remarks, “I thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see that there was nothing in it after all.” We fans are all John Watsons, trying to emulate the great detective.
Conan Doyle was a visionary and well ahead of his times. The technique of preserving the crime scene did not exist at the time, as Holmes continues to remark on the Scotland Yard officers contaminating the crime scene. The first instance of fingerprint detection appears in The Sign of Four in 1890; Scotland Yard began using in technique in 1901. In A Case of Identity (1891), Holmes uses peculiarities of a typewriter to make deductions. The FBI started its document analysis section in 1932.
The first short story Conan Doyle wrote was A Scandal in Bohemia, after he finished the novel A Study in Scarlet. What’s remarkable about this story is that he shows Sherlock Holmes being outwitted by a woman. Clearly, Conan Doyle was unperturbed by the Victorian society around him and must have made his independent observations and deductions. He had no qualms in showing that a woman was as capable of deductive powers as the greatest detective in the world. A Scandal in Bohemia was published in 1891. The UK Parliament passed Equal Franchise Act in 1928, allowing women to vote.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a man well ahead of his times.
