“I’m not a lady yet,” detective Enola Holmes declaims passionately, standing on top of a carriage in a wedding dress and fleeing veil, wielding a gun. Less than five minutes into her threequel, this is somewhat the thesis of the entire movie — and perhaps the franchise.
Millie Bobby Brown returns as eponymous star and producer (along with her husband Jake Bongiovi, who is now an executive producer!) of the latest addition in Netflix’s successful series Enola Holmes; Sherlock Holmes’ sprightly little sister now all grown up and ready for the next step. Or is she?
For those still not in the know, the last installment saw Enola insecure about proving worthy of the Holmes name, struggling to figure out her own identity while Sherlock was preoccupied with a case of his own.
This installment however, sees Enola insecure about proving worthy of the Holmes name, struggling to figure out her own identity while Sherlock was preoccupied. With what? Oh, just a case of his own.
Nay, I jest; there is of course more to the story.
After a foreboding beginning scene hinting at an escaped villain and “misplaced items”, we are whisked away to Malta, where Enola is readying for her marriage to Lord Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge), her partner in crime, caper and hijink.
Her practice helps out the less fortunate and is doing well, her House of Lords liberal firebrand fiancé Earnest (Enola: “Yes, he has a first name. I was surprised too”) is doing well, all is well, she tells us. And yet, through obligatory wedding montage of Enola in various white dresses (all of them stifling and a callback to the ill-advised attempts to ‘tame’ her in the first film) Enola is having doubts.
Despite her content existence with ol’ Tewks — dancing in the living room, bonding over finding a field mouse, the works — is she giving up everything she’s worked for as Enola Holmes? You have to admit Enola Tewkesbury doesn’t have the same ring to it.
(Un)fortunately she doesn’t have much time to ponder this existential crisis, because, as Dr. Watson (Himesh Patel) informs her after barely surviving her bullets, Sherlock Holmes has been kidnapped. Egads!
We are then plunged into the thick of mystery, replete with chase scenes through Maltese markets (hurrah for color back in films again!), shadowy murders (tackled in acrylic nails and full 21st century makeup) and a long buried secret that must be avenged.
Henry Cavill reprises his role as Sherlock for about six total minutes of screentime (including his very clearly CGI-ed presence at Enola’s climactic wedding). This is the first film without Sam Claflin as Mycroft Holmes, presumably due to scheduling conflicts, but any absences are more than made up for by the effervescent Helena Bonham Carter, back again as the Holmes’ mother Eudoria.
It is always lovely to see Himesh Patel in anything, and he has a lovely understated but heartfelt scene with Partridge towards the end, although racism commentary-wise, he had much more to work with in his recent cameo on the excellent ‘Bait’.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a Holmes film without a Moriarty, and Sharon Duncan-Brewster, all maniacal laughter and slobbering spit, is appropriately, if not a little overly, cartoonish and wicked. Her fight choreography scenes with Enola seem evenly matched, and the film leaves space for a potential return.
To its sadly unusual credit, each Enola Holmes film has taken on a different social issue to address, albeit at times rather on the nose-edly. The first film talked about universal suffrage, and the second one departed from the books to adapt the real matchgirls’ strike.
Enola Holmes 3 is no different. While the opportunity for director Philip Barantini and his Adolescence scriptwriter Jack Thorne to take on the period-appropriate equivalent of the manosphere was right there, however, the film veers off the intersectional feminism path to deal with the very woke issue of human equality and colonial looting of treasures.
There are a couple of lines here and there that I would love my teenaged loved ones to hear. “The British empire, it cannot admit guilt”, “Many men get distracted by what it means to be great and lose themselves in the process” and ““There are few British names that are not tarnished with the pain of its empire” come to mind.
A step further, “I am not so frightened of society that I will not conform to its wishes occasionally” is an interesting perspective on freedom and choice. Even the motif of men being capable of horrendous things while simultaneously being loving parents feels particularly relevant for today, if you can connect the dots.
Personally, however, none of the above even come close to Edith’s (Susie Wokoma) iconic line from the first movie. When Sherlock remarks that politics doesn’t interest him because it is “fatally boring”, she replies with, “Politics doesn’t interest you. Why? Because you have no interest in changing a world that suits you so well.”
I remember exactly where I was when I heard it, because I’d hitherto never encountered the calling out of an otherwise ‘good’ and even ‘heroic’ man for the privilege of his inaction and subsequent complicity.
So while another installment has not been confirmed yet, it is not only because it warms me somewhere in my cold heart to see a millionaire former child actress live her best life, that I am calling for yet another Enola Holmes.
Is the mystery airtight? Is the pacing perfect? Are the performances Oscar-worthy? No to all. BUT.
There is a criminal lack of frothy, family friendly entertainers aimed at children, and producers everywhere would do well to recognize it. In my opinion, it is that gap, along with an Oscar-winning soundtrack, which largely motivated the staggering success of KPop Demon Hunters.
Netflix is going to throw away money on blockbuster critical flops anyway. So why not Enola Holmes?
At a time of increasing brainrot and polarization, I think children and adults alike do sometimes need a fourth wall breaking protagonist with slick graphic edits to beat one over the head with truths like “equality=good” and “colonialism=bad”.
So yes, despite middling critical reviews, I say more Enola Holmes! More joyous Millie Bobby Brown! And bring back Sam Claflin while you’re at it.
