Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Enola Holmes 2’ on Netflix, in Which Millie Bobby Brown Wins Us Over Again as the Witty Teen Sleuth

I don’t remember much of what happened in Enola Holmes, but am left with an indelible impression of Millie Bobby Brown’s exuberantly charming performance, its zippy feminism, and the generally pleasing and upbeat experience of it all. It also was a smash hit for Netflix, so it naturally inspired a sequel, Enola Holmes 2, whose title is refreshingly old-school and doesn’t include a colon followed by a pithy descriptive clause. It reunites key members of the creative team, including director Harry Bradbeer, writer Jack Thorne and above-the-title star Brown, alongside supporting stars Henry Cavill, Helena Bonham-Carter and Louis Partridge. It also doesn’t upset the applecart and fart around with the formula, more for the better than the worse.

ENOLA HOLMES 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Reminder: These are movies in which the protagonist frequently addresses us directly and gives little knowing looks to the camera, which shouldn’t be a surprise, since it’s from the director of every episode of Fleabag. It happens early on, as Enola Holmes (Brown) abruptly halts a narrative in which she’s being chased down a London alley by police and says, “Perhaps I should explain.” Yes, this is precisely where the movie indulges a flashback and works its way back to this point. I know, it’s a cliche, get a new shtick you screenwriters, but this is a pretty good movie anyway, so please be patient. We get caught up on what happened since Enola opened her own detective agency at the end of the first film, and it ain’t great. She still can’t shake the residual fame of her incredibly famous brother Sherlock (Cavill), and nobody will patronize her because she’s YOUNG and just a GIRL, which automatically means she’s a stupid worthless citizen, this being Victorian England and all.

One day, a young ragamuffin named Bessie (Serrana Su-Ling Bliss) wanders in, asking Enola for help finding her missing sister, Sarah. She lives in a slum where rats and typhus run rampant. She barely has two coins to her name. She works in a matchstick factory run by exploitative old men. Are there clues to be found pointing Enola toward the whereabouts of Sarah? Like strands of hair, clothing fibers, notes that aren’t notes but actually are hidden messages that need to be decoded, stuff like that? You wouldn’t find them. I wouldn’t find them. But Enola can find them, and have plenty of gas left in the tank for witty little asides to the audience. She’s a wonder, isn’t she? Smart, observant, clever, cheekily defying convention, knows jiu jitsu, always knows right where the camera is at all times. She will put this world in an arm bar and make it submit.

Other principals cross Enola’s path as she snoops. One being Sherlock, who’s struggling to piece together the clues on his own case – something to do with fraudulent bank transfers, which surely will never have anything to do with his sister’s gig. Lord Tewkesbury (Partridge) holds steady as Enola’s crush, and comes in handy when she needs to learn how to dance in order to pretend to be a posh girl and infiltrate a hoity-toity society party. Enola’s troublemaking feminist radical and explosives expert mother Eudoria (Bonham-Carter) turns up to dispense advice and wisdom, or when the plot really needs her, whichever comes first. And new to the franchise is Inspector Grail, who you know at a single glance is an amoral shrew, because he’s played by David Thewlis, a man who plays such fine scum. Will Enola find the missing woman and team up with her brother and maybe even upend some political shenanigans and rip the lid off a conspiracy? ELEMENTARY MY DEAR, NO SPOILERS.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Same stuff the first one reminded me of – Suffragette, Nancy Drew, Austen adaptations, etc. – because it’s almost the same movie. I’ve also seen the Dickinson series since then, and Enola will never out-Dickinson Dickinson.

Performance Worth Watching: I’ll reiterate an earlier sentiment: Without Brown, the Enolas are only vaguely memorable. She has – apologies for deploying highly technical terms here – the Stuff. She has It. She has enough Stuff and It to make the direct-address stuff engaging rather than wearisome. She has Stuff and It beyond the limitations of Stranger Things, and one hopes she brings her Stuff and It to greater pastures, and no, I don’t mean Marvel movies, but prestige Oscar movies.

Memorable Dialogue: Sherlock gets a little down on himself:

Sherlock: Enola, I know you’re not a fan of unnecessary advice, but please – don’t turn into me.

Enola (to the camera): I should probably write that down.

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: A little featherweight feminism and a lotta Millie Bobby Brown keep Enola Holmes 2 from fluttering away in a breeze. So it’s a lot like the first movie, although it’s got a little less shine and fewer surprises, since its peppy tone and bevy of mystery-twists arrive pre-established. I think this means Enola is officially a (deep sigh) franchise, but that’s not necessarily unwelcome; these are perfectly delightful family films reinforcing the renewed popular interest in classically styled mysteries, a la Rian Johnson’s Knives Out films and Kenneth Branagh’s Agatha Christie adaptations.

Not that Enola relies wholly on her brain matter like Blanc or Poirot. This being a film aiming to lasso all audiences and offer Something For Everyone, it incorporates a car chase (OK, a horse-and-carriage chase), fisticuffs, 19th-century hand grenades, a little fencing, a little more dancing and a snatch of romance lest this too much resemble yet another movie for boys, and a clumsily directed climactic fight sequence to go with the more shrewdly twisty climactic plot revelations and the heavy-handed climactic invocation of the matchgirls’ strike of 1888. You can’t help but admire the film for its enthusiasm, and it’s less a try-hard endeavor than a glossy deployment of formulaic elements. Praise it for further establishing a winning formula, but one hopes the inevitable Enola 3 tries something a little different lest our heroine start mugging and quipping to less engaged audiences.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Enola Holmes 2 doesn’t quite shine and pop like its predecessor, but it’s still welcome, cheery entertainment.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com.