The sequel to the hit movie “Enola Holmes” was recently released on Nov. 4 2022. “Enola Holmes 2” was directed by Harry Bradbeer and written by Jack Thorne and Nancy Springer.
The “Enola Holmes” franchise was originally a book series written by Nancy Springer. The books were called “Enola Holmes” and the series is made up of seven books. The books are based on the undeniably successful Sherlock Holmes books, movies, shows and plays.
Eventually, the “Enola Holmes” books created a massively successful movie series on Netflix when its first movie came out on Sept. 23 2022 and was watched over 70 million times.
Enola, Sherlock Holmes’ sister, is an aspiring detective in the late 1800s. Her work is brushed over and denied because of her young age and gender in addition to her being in the shadow of her older brother.
After her first solved case in the first “Enola Holmes,” she opens a detective’s office and finds her second case with a young girl who’s sister is missing. This young girl is an underprivileged “match girl” who believes her sister is in grave danger, but her sister’s case is overlooked because of her low class.
“Enola Holmes 2” is heavily inspired by historical events back in the late 19th century. Many lower-class girls worked in match factories and were called “match girls.” These factories were very dangerous to work in, which ultimately ends up driving the plot in this movie.
This mystery is fabulous as it continuously unravels into a complicated and charming adventure that ends with the most unpredictable ending. The flow of events is entertaining and sufficiently kept me entertained.
Enola, played by Millie Bobby Brown, executes a wonderful performance. Though, Louis Partridge’s execution as Enola’s love interest, Tewksbury, is nothing but subpar. His character seemed disconnected from the story and his emotions and reactions to the development of the plot were unrealistic of how a person would act in those situations. Despite the poor performance, the tension between Enola and Tewksbury does redeem his character a little.
Enola’s brother, Sherlock, played by Henry Cavill, was given a much bigger part in the second movie. He was much more likable this time around and develops as a character that isn’t so distant and spiteful as he was in the original.
The sets of this movie are beautiful, truly making the movie an immersive experience. All the sets are beautiful and thought out, but my favorites are the match factory and Tewksbury’s home as they both are physically beautiful and reveal so much about the plot and characters. The match factory is where most of the action happens and when we first enter it, there are many aspects of the set foreshadowing the ending like the strategic placing of the meeting rooms compared to the offices and the change in match color from red to white.
The costumes are what really make this movie so phenomenal. I’m no fashion expert, so I can’t tell you if these are period-accurate, but they are definitely extravagant. Even though she is high class, Enola’s outfits are very messy and old, giving her an interesting dichotomy where the poor think she’s rich and the rich think she’s poor. Throughout the movie, we get to see how she handles that and still solves her case despite the fact that she is shunned by most of the people around her.
Additionally, the movie touches on a few societal problems like women’s rights and classism, though I don’t think it does a satisfactory job explaining the depth of these problems. Feminism is prevalent in both movies, but “Enola Holmes 2” lacks any serious discussion about women’s rights besides the occasional protest or bomb planted by Enola Holmes’ mother’s secret organization of women. It does an especially poor job of portraying classism and income inequality, setting it up as this big problem before brushing over it in the end.
Overall, I would encourage people to see this movie. The characters are likable, the sets are beautiful and the costumes are fabulous. The few flaws are not detrimental, so if anyone already has a Netflix subscription, I would implore them to sit down and watch this movie.
