While no one will ever accuse the picture of overestimating its viewers’ intelligence — Jack Thorne’s script rarely misses the chance to drive a moral point home with one more pound to the head of the nail — it successfully imagines a place for its heroine in Holmes’ world, then convinces young viewers that Enola needn’t be constrained by that world’s borders.
Adapting the first of Springer’s books as the origin tale in what’s surely intended to be a series of Netflix movies, Harry Bradbeer’s Enola Holmes makes a fine showcase for Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown, who gets to drop the layers of anxiety and trauma that make that show’s El such a compelling character.