3 out of 5

Directed by: Harry Bradbeer

Let me start out by saying that I desperately want an Enola Holmes 3. Director Harry Bradbeer, writer Jack Thorne, and Mille Bobbie Brown – playing Enola, Sherlock Holmes’ younger, mystery-solvin’ sister – carved out a well defined splinter of the Holmes narrative in the first movie, and are exploiting that with even more confidence in this sequel. That said, EH2 is still a sequel, and exhibits some of the limitations of playing it safe, and in a sandbox that’s had its borders defined: the movie doesn’t feel as scrappy, and is required to do some stylistic callbacks that were obviously enjoyed before, but become close to feeling played out in their use here. We necessarily have to continue storylines, but in trying to age up with their viewing audience, the movie has advanced into teen soap territory, which is fine, but that’s the scrappy bit – some of the multi-generational appeal takes a backseat to Holmes budding romance with Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge); all well and good and age appropriate, but it was kind of nice when the first movie felt more centralized on the journey and investigation. To balance this out, EH2 mingles in real world events – the matchgirl strike – and that has the reductionist vibe of most fictionalized histories, further narrowed by the teenage romance bit. Lastly, we start winking more at Holmes’ lore, which is definitely fun, but it’s transitional stuff – finding a balance between making this Enola’s story, or something for Holmes fans.

But that’s why we need an Enola Holmes 3, because all of these steps make sense on the way to establishing an identity for what’s hopefully a longer-running series; it’s kind of a bummer to stuff them into one entry, though that means it opens up story / tone options in later entries…

In EH2, riding off the, er, lack of fame of having her successes over-shadowed by her older brother, Enola starts up and then quickly closes her own detective agency, struggling to overcome the doubts of her abilities due to her age and gender, and… is Sherlock around? At the last minute, though, she gets a case: a missing matchstick girl, requested by the disappeared’s younger sister (Serrana Su-Ling Bliss). This ends up intersecting with a case on which Sherlock (Henry Cavill) is working, and once more injects Enola into quite dangerous business – there are scuffles; there’s corruption; there are knives and guns and not everyone makes it out unsullied.

The interaction between Cavill and Bobby Brown is so charming, and the way their cases cross over is very satisfying, taking nothing away from either’s skills, and allowing the plotlines to develop independently entertainingly. Bradbeer and Thorne may have crafted a film that ultimately feels safer than the first, but they’re still good with making sure Enola is an active participant: she punches and gets punched; she’s in the mix at all times. The movie is never not fun, it’s edges have just been softened. And we get David Thewlis as a bad guy, satisfying that requisite that a flick likes this thrives off of having a good villain.

Overall, while I’d say the first Enola Holmes had something for everyone, the second is more targeted to those that loved the first one; it is – perhaps inevitably – less unique. But I’m hopeful (and confident) that this team can take lessons learned between the two flicks and continue the brand onward in very promising ways.