Mark Reviews Movies: ENOLA HOLMES 2

Enola Holmes 2, Netflix

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Review by Mark Dujsik | November 3, 2022

Everything that worked in Enola Holmes is concentrated and amplified in this sequel. Enola Holmes 2 confirms the suspicion that the title character, the younger sister of the world's most famous detective, is a worthwhile character in her own right. Enola (Millie Bobby Brown) may live and work in the long shadow cast by her older brother, but that also means she has to shine brighter to compensate for being ignored, underestimated, and, in terms of how an audience might imagine her role, perceived as some kind of carbon copy of her brother.

Enola might be nearly as clever and perceptive as that detective, but she sees the world in a completely different way. That makes all the difference.

Here, we're quickly re-introduced to Enola, who has opened her own detective agency after solving her first case. No one takes her seriously, based on her age (She's still a teenager), her gender (During a montage of potential clients, some older men are simply shocked that a girl imagines she could do such work), and the fact that everyone assumes her brother was responsible for the resolution of that previous mystery. Sherlock (Henry Cavill) isn't so cruel to take the credit away from the sister with whom he was only recently reacquainted, but he's also so caught up in his own thinking and powers of deduction to even consider correcting the record, apparently.

Sherlock plays a significant role here, as a mentor to Enola, although mostly by accident, and as the investigator of a case that finally seems to have him flummoxed. Cavill, who seemed miscast in the first film but was so charming that there was little reason to care, comes into his own in the role this time. While that's mainly because the character has more to do, it's also because the actor is convincingly aloof and stuck in his own concerns.

Some might worry that a bigger part for Sherlock in this installment, once again written by Jack Thorne (adapting Nancy Springer's book series in some fashion) and directed by Harry Bradbeer, could be a mistake. After all, the whole point of these films, which surely will continue as a series (A prospect that feels even more promising now), is for Enola to stand on her own and apart from her more famous brother.

Such concerns are easily and persuasively dismissed by the material. Part of Sherlock's character, obviously, is his stubbornness to work alone and without help. While Enola has that quality, too, the very fact that she eventually comes to seek the aid of her older brother, as well as a few other returning characters, shows how distinct she is from Sherlock. A mid-credits appearance from an inevitable character also suggests that her capacity to think of the needs of others is going to influence the older brother's career in a significant way.

Anyway, most of the plot revolves around Enola's newest case. She's hired by Bessie (Serrana Su-Ling Bliss), a worker at a match factory, to track down and find her missing sister-by-circumstance-and-necessity. The young woman, also a "matchstick girl," went missing without a trace, and after going undercover as a new worker in the factory, Enola discovers a few leads. The missing woman might have been involved with or threatened by a mysterious man, and she also stole some pages from the factory's ledger, pointing toward blackmail on her part, extortion perpetrated against her, or something else entirely.

Meanwhile, Sherlock may have met his match with a case that involves stolen government money, leading to a predictable but welcome revelation about the identity of the criminal. While Enola offers a bit of help there, she's mostly busy on the run from Superintendent Grail (David Thewlis), who suspects the young detective of murder.

Yet again, the mystery here is solid and, as the political and social background of the case comes into sharper focus, pretty thoughtful about matters beyond the who, what, when, and why of the case. That's not too surprising at this point, but it's nice that the filmmakers continue and expand upon some of the driving ideas about social and political evolution here, just as they continue developing the characters.

Lest one forgets, Enola was raised by Eudoria (Helena Bonham Carter), who's quickly re-introduced here as a revolutionary suffragette (She's quite skilled with explosives and, amusingly, has a stash of them on her at any given moment for the likely occasion of stagecoach chase). Her first case, too, revolved around the young Lord Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge), previously a potential reformer who now has a seat in Parliament and is working his hardest for change. The awkward spark of a possible romance between the detective and the noble is smartly and funnily continued here, as both are almost too concerned with more pressing matters to do or say anything about their feelings for each other (To wit, one of them trying to express affection by openly wondering, "Did you understand what I didn't say?").

With all of the setup and justification of the main character out of the way from the first film, Enola Holmes 2 is free to focus on this mystery, solidify what we know about these characters, and give them some room to grow, too. The sequel is probably better than its predecessor, although it's certainly more confident and focused in its storytelling. The previous film left us curious about the character's future, but this one lets us know there is a strong future for the series, as long as the filmmakers and actors continue to care as much about all of the potential that's here.

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