Mixy Studios

Let me start off by saying that I had absolutely no problem with the acting and the idea behind the plot. I’m all for a good feminist movie, however this one wasn’t really my cup of tea. I wasn’t a fan of Enola’s “Mary-Sue” character (I’m a huge fan of Millie Bobby Brown, however, so I found myself conflicted. Millie is very talented and there’s no argument about how far she’ll go in life, but I just didn’t like this character for her). “Mary-Sue” is a made up term used to describe a character with ultimately no character flaws. The most commonly used example is Katniss Everdeen. She’s heroic, brave, strong, and kindhearted. I mean, those are great traits and all, but there’s not much else to her. she doesn’t have any specific fears that throw her off or any significant weaknesses. And that was my problem with Enola. She’s a natural-born genius with what seems like absolutely no weaknesses. She outsmarts everyone, including her genius brother who has years of experience as a detective which, honestly, bothered me the most. Enola’s only remote skill was her proficiency at word games and puzzles, yet she solves a mystery with little to no failures. It even specifies that, growing up in the country, she doesn’t have much knowledge about the urban world, yet she knows exactly how to blend right in. frankly, that’s incredibly unrealistic. It would’ve made for a better story if there were more obstacles for her to overcome. How can we call Enola a feminist figure to look up to if there are ultimately no conflicts for her to vanquish? She doesn’t show any signs of resilience or ambition because she never had to opportunity to give up, which, once again, makes for an unrealistic story. It would have been better if the story showed Enola’s growth as a ripe detective instead of her seemingly already developed cleverness. The climax was, paradoxically, not very climactic at all, and it hardly had anything to with the original exposition. In my opinion, the story was very poorly written and needed a lot of revising.