And I was wrong.

It's actually just a lighthearted movie about Sherlock's younger sister who is not as brilliant as her famous brother. She actually struggles to find clues, playing the role of both Watson and Sherlock in a sense. She is also a teenage girl, and has insecurities and doubts and crushes on boys and the like. All of this makes her character interesting. You want her to win. You also look at Sherlock Holmes as the legend he is, and yet you still root for Enola to solve the crime.

I don't know what her name means, but it's "Alone" backwards. I guess it's either a Home Alone reference, an actual name, or an allusion to the fact that she fulfills the role of Watson and Sherlock on her own.

I've read all but the 10 Sherlock Holmes stories that came into the public domain in America last year, so I'm very familiar with the character and sensitive to poor interpretations. I have no problem with shows like Psych, though, as they use the Sherlock formula to create brand new characters that aren't already fully developed. I was mostly skeptical about Enola Holmes because I doubted the movie's ability to portray the character faithfully given that the entire premise is already a deviation from Conan Doyle's work. While that's true of some of the characters, it's not true of Sherlock himself; he has kept true to his origins, at least.

Enola is excusable to me in the same manner that Wishbone is excusable to me when watching the Pawloined Letter. She is merely a new invention created to introduce young viewers to the world of Sherlock Holmes, and that's fine. The movie was fun.