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Enola Holmes 2 Movie Review

Enola Holmes 2 is a 2022 mystery film directed by Harry Bradbeer and starring Millie Bobby Brown. It is a very good, immensely charming sequel.

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“The game has found its feet again“

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Enola Holmes takes on her first case as a detective, but to unravel the mystery of a missing girl, she’ll need some help from friends and her brother Sherlock. The first ‘Enola Holmes’ came out in 2022 and it was an utter delight. This sequel, though a bumpy ride, continues this franchise in a lovely manner and let us hope we will get more sequels in the near future.

For this one, the writers did not adapt any of the books from the titular series. Instead, they created their own story and it shows unfortunately. While the idea to portray the 1888 matchgirls’ strike and how white phosphorus physically damaged these workers was a sound one, the execution was only serviceable. I preferred the original’s storyline as this one favored action sequences a bit too much for my own taste, but the characters certainly elevated the material at hand.

Millie Bobby Brown is once again incredible in the main role. This was a role that she was born to play, much more so than ‘Stranger Things’ 11 in fact. Her Enola is an iconic creation – full of spark, charm, humor and a lot of heart. What this movie does better than the original are the scenes where she breaks the fourth wall. Those are particularly humorous this time around and a whole lot of fun. She gets to kick some serious ass while still remaining compassionate and extremely likable, a hallmark of a genuinely terrific protagonist.

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Henry Cavill is back as Sherlock, but in a much more elevated role in terms of screen time. He is a true supporting player here and at times bordering on being a main character as well. There was time for both of them to shine here, so I did not mind his prolonged role. In fact, the highlight of the flick is the dynamic between the two characters and actors playing them. Whenever the two were bickering, the actors were clearly having a blast, and so was I watching them.

David Thewlis delivers another strong performance in what is truly a recent renaissance for him. Louis Partridge is very likable as Enola’s love interest and the two share an endearing romance. Helena Bonham Carter was seriously shortchanged this time around as her mother, but she at least got a couple of scenes to shine. The other characters are only plot devices.

Enola Holmes 2 features solid cinematography, once again superb costumes and a good score. The action scenes were executed in a surprisingly uninteresting and far from kinetic manner, but at least the rest of the flick is an audio-visual delight. The dialogue and the humor are the standouts, both hopefully making the movie a treat for audiences of all ages and not just children and teens as the target demographic.

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This still might be a movie that traditional Sherlock Holmes fans and older viewers may not gravitate toward, but it is a delight for younger viewers and one of Netflix’s best current franchises for sure. The period detail here was superb, but the mystery elements still need more work. The hint at Watson’s addition in the sequels was exciting. Let’s just hope they work a bit harder on the script in the future entries.