ENOLA HOLMES
A brilliantly made mystery wrapped in a message parents should weigh carefully.
Should You Watch It?
This is, on craft alone, a full four-star picture. Millie Bobby Brown carries the title role with real charm and grit, the supporting cast (Henry Cavill, Sam Claflin, Helena Bonham Carter) all shine, and the mystery moves with energy and confidence. If you're grading the filmmaking, there's little to complain about.
The worldview is where the caution comes in. ENOLA HOLMES leans hard into a Romantic, politically correct feminist message: your life is your own, your future is entirely up to you, and no one — especially no man — gets to tell you what to do. That message sits alongside genuine Christian and moral notes, but it's the dominant note, not a passing one.
There's also real fighting involving a 16-year-old heroine — punches, a stabbing attempt, a rifle butt to the head. None of it is gratuitous, but it's frequent enough to matter.
Watch it, enjoy the craft, but watch it with your family, not for them unattended.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESSherlock Holmes has a younger sister, and she's every bit the detective he is. When Enola's mother vanishes without a word on Enola's sixteenth birthday, she's left with only a strange coded gift and the certainty that her mother wouldn't leave her on purpose. Her famous brothers — Mycroft, who wants to ship her off to finishing school, and Sherlock, who's quietly impressed — are no help. So Enola sets off for London alone to find the truth, and stumbles straight into someone else's mystery along the way.
Is It Any Good?
Four stars means this is genuinely well-made, and the source backs that up plainly. Millie Bobby Brown anchors the film as a clever, strong-willed lead, and the veteran supporting cast — Bonham Carter, Cavill, Claflin — all bring real polish to their roles. The mystery keeps a brisk, edge-of-your-seat pace, and the music adds real vibrancy to the adventure. This isn't a film coasting on name recognition; it's confidently directed and consistently entertaining from start to finish. Whatever reservations follow are about what the film says, not how well it says it.
The Worldview
ENOLA HOLMES is, at its core, a Romantic feminist parable dressed as a detective story. Enola's mother teaches her that her future is entirely her own, that she doesn't need her family to know who she is, and that no one — especially no man — gets to direct her life. The film even edges toward a kind of New Age individualism: the future is simply "up to us," and Enola is cast as a finder of lost souls. A subplot involving her mother's secret fight for women's rights (apparently tied to expanding voting rights) reinforces the same message.
To its credit, the film doesn't leave it there. A cross appears on a headstone. A character says, "God help us." Courage, integrity, and family loyalty are genuinely honored, and Enola risks her own life for a friend — echoed in a story she tells about saving a sheep, which carries a faint but real echo of the Good Shepherd. A character also observes that caring for others has limits when it costs you your own life — a moral complexity worth discussing, not dismissing.
The tension is real: a film that wants you to believe you need no one, set inside a story that keeps proving family, courage, and sacrifice matter after all. Scripture offers a better resolution to that tension than radical self-sufficiency — we were made for each other, not for ourselves alone: "Two are better than one... for if they fall, one will lift up his fellow" (Ecclesiastes 4:9–10).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements
Strong Romantic, politically correct feminist worldview where title character’s mother fights for women’s rights but goes to extremes and teaches her daughter that no one, especially a man, can tell her what to do, title character outsmarts her famous older brother to show him that she’s just as good as he is, heroine has to go and save a boy she met because he’s not as strong or smart as her, a comment about a corset being a form of oppression with other comments about body shaming and what a woman should be in society, title character believes she’s the only one who can solve the mystery and that she only needs herself and no one else, some false New Age pagan thinking teaches that the future is up to us and that life is our own, and that heroine is a finder of lost souls, mitigated by some solid Christian, moral elements includes a cross is on a headstone, someone says, “God help us,” courage and integrity and family are extolled, title character risks her life for a friend (she also tells a story about risking her life to save a sheep, which has echoes to Jesus being our Divine Shepherd), and a character says it’s good to care for others, unless it makes you vulnerable to losing your own life
Foul Language
Four obscenities (“h” words), three light profanities such as “Good God,” “My God” and “Dear God,” and some light name calling
Violence
Strong and light action violence includes teenage girl learns Jujitsu, to swordfight and to shoot a bow and arrow along with chemistry lessons that also involve using gunpowder, many fighting scenes (some of which involve the 16-year-old heroine getting punched and hit), a bike crash, light broken while playing table tennis, character slaps another character in face, character falls from landing where he was hiding, character dangles off train by someone wanting to kill him, characters jump and fall from moving train to save their lives, character tries to drown someone, character stabs teenage girl, but she’s not wounded, man hit with a metal kettle, character tries to choke and kill, characters are shot at in an attempt to kill, and one gets shot but doesn’t die, man hits teenage girl with rifle butt, and her head bleeds a little, man hits head, and some blood is seen, a feminist character makes bombs to make a political statement, and a character dies
Sex
No sex scenes or sexual immorality
Nudity
No nudity but 16-year-old girl appears in old-fashioned undergarments in a couple scenes
Alcohol Use
Alcohol seen twice
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
Three instances of pipe smoking;
Miscellaneous Immorality
Strong miscellaneous immorality includes a dysfunctional family portrayal, teenage rebellion, greed, deceit, bribery, and one of 16-year-old girl’s two older brothers wants to “tame” his “wild” sister by sending her to finishing school.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
Enola's mother teaches her that her life is entirely her own and no one else gets a say. Where does Scripture agree that we're each responsible before God — and where does it push back on total self-sufficiency?
Galatians 6:2 · Ecclesiastes 4:9–10Enola risks her life for a friend, and tells a story about saving a sheep. What does that image remind us of, and what does real sacrificial love look like?
John 10:11 · John 15:13One character says caring for others has a limit once it makes you vulnerable. Do you agree? What does Jesus's example suggest about the cost of caring for others?
Philippians 2:3–8Mycroft wants to send Enola away rather than understand her; Sherlock takes a more patient approach. What does this contrast teach us about how we treat family members who don't fit our expectations?
Ephesians 4:2 · Colossians 3:12–13The Final Word
ENOLA HOLMES is a genuinely well-crafted mystery with a strong young star and a message families need to talk through, not just watch past. Our answer stands: worth the trip — adults only. Watch it together, and let the conversation do some of the work the film leaves undone.
— [Revi
