Sherlock Holmes, played by Henry Cavill – and here’s how he compares to Benedict Cumberbatch’s. Created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes made his debut in 1887 in the story A Story in Scarlet, and went on to appear in a series of short stories and novels that made him one of the most popular and beloved characters in literature. As a result, the Great Detective has been adapted to all types of media for over a hundred years, and many artists have borrowed Conan Doyle’s characters to give them a new life.
Among those is Nancy Springer, who decided to explore Sherlock’s family background by giving him a younger sister and focusing on her very own adventures in the book series The Enola Holmes Mysteries. Enola is 20 years younger than Sherlock and was raised by their mother, Eudoria, and doesn’t really have a relationship with her brothers, as they left when Enola was very young. However, when Eudoria disappears on Enola’s 14th birthday, the Holmes siblings reunite, but Mycroft wants to send his sister to a school for young ladies, and so she escapes to investigate her mother’s disappearance all by herself.
Enola has now made the jump to film in the movie simply titled Enola Holmes, which follows the above premise but with some changes. The youngest Holmes is played by Millie Bobby Brown, who is accompanied by Helena Bonham Carter as Eudoria, Sam Claflin as Mycroft, and Sherlock. But how different is Cavill’s version to Cumberbatch’s?
Henry Cavill’s Sherlock Personality vs Cumberbatch’s
The Sherlock Holmes seen in Enola Holmes is very different from other adaptations because he’s more open with his emotions, and the character is best known for his coldness. In the book (titled The Case of the Missing Marquess), Enola mentions that, even though she hasn’t seen her brothers in 10 years as they left to never come back, Sherlock has always been her favorite, so it’s quite possible that he has always been more comprehensive and not-as-cold as the original character. In the movie, there’s an instant connection between Enola and Sherlock (the same can’t be said about her and Mycroft), and he even tells her that he cares about her.
Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock, on the other hand, is the complete opposite. Cumberbatch’s version is cold and struggles with his emotions, and even calls himself a “high-functioning sociopath”. This Sherlock always ends up hurting those around him, including John Watson (played by Martin Freeman), though he eventually learns how to deal with him. In addition to that, this version rarely shows respect and puts himself above the rest, while Cavill’s is a bit more empathic and open.
Henry Cavill’s Sherlock Detective Skills vs Cumberbatch’s
Enola Holmes is all about the youngest Holmes and her first cases (the disappearance of her mother and the plot to kill Viscount Tewkesbury, played by Louis Partridge), so there’s no time for Cavill’s Sherlock to display his talents. However, there are some brief moments where viewers can see his detective skills in action: first, when he discovers a message his mother left in the chimney, and then when he immediately knows that one of the “boys” who jumped out of a moving train was his sister in disguise. Sherlock’s deductions happen in silence, very much like in the books, and his train of thought isn’t shown on screen, except when he tells Mycroft that their mother planned her disappearance.
Sherlock brought the Great Detective to the modern world, where he took advantage of technology, but his deductive skills were still the main attraction. Cumberbatch’s version was, more often than don’t, a show-off, explaining his process out loud (and very fast) as to either impress or make others look bad (as he did with Anderson on many, many occasions). That’s not to say his detective skills are less than Cavill’s, but they did reach a point where they were not believable anymore, specifically after Sherlock came back from the dead. Both versions are excellent detectives, but their processes are very different.
How Book Accurate Cavill’s Sherlock Is Compared To Cumberbatch
Although Henry Cavill’s Sherlock is different from the widely-known image of the character, he’s not book inaccurate. In fact, Netflix has been sued by the Conan Doyle Estate over its depiction of Sherlock, as the character shows emotions. According to them, this violates copyright as the stories where Sherlock is described as having emotions were published between 1923 and 1927, and don’t fall under the public domain. This Sherlock can be found in the final 10 stories, which followed his fake death in “The Final Problem”. Cavill’s version, then, is book accurate, even if that’s a part of Sherlock’s life that is lesser-known or that the audience tends to forget.
Cumberbatch’s version is also book accurate, but he takes his personality from the earlier stories of the Great Detective. As mentioned above, Sherlock Holmes is cold yet respectful, which are characteristics Cumberbatch’s version kept (except he struggled to show respect most of the time), but his abilities and tricks are true to the source material. Both performances are book accurate with a couple of changes either to fit the narrative or the setting, and they represent different eras of Sherlock Holmes.
Is Cavill’s Sherlock Better Than Benedict Cumberbatch’s
Comparing Cavill and Cumberbatch’s Sherlocks is tricky due to their characters being placed in different time settings and thus very different contexts. Another aspect that makes the comparison a bit tough is that Enola Holmes didn’t give Cavill’s Sherlock much screen time as the story is all about Enola, not her famous brother, while Cumberbatch’s had a whole series for himself. Still, in this case, Henry Cavill’s Sherlock would be the winner, simply because he had more in common with post-Reichenbach Falls Sherlock than Cumberbatch’s with early-years Sherlock (and post-fake death as well).
This doesn’t mean that Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock is bad, as he adds some details to the character that Cavill’s version doesn’t (or hasn’t yet, due to his limited screen time), and in the end, it’s up to viewers to decide which Sherlock Holmes is better based on their own knowledge of the character, their experience with Enola Holmes and Sherlock, and how each performance resonates with them – and, of course, there’s no reason to not enjoy both.
