The rambunctious energy of Guy Ritchie’s slick, brassy Sherlock Holmes universe might have divided critics and repelled purists but it overwhelmingly charmed audiences, the two films racking up over $1bn worldwide. With a third still up in the air, and likely never to come down to earth, Netflix has niftily managed to scratch a similar itch with its Enola Holmes franchise, another cheekily smashed together platter of quick-thinking mystery-solving and slow-motion high-kicking. If anything, even without the star appeal and more experienced director at the helm, this sort of divisively exhausting vim works better here, with a younger audience in mind, also aided by a more notable separation from the beloved source material.
The first film was a pandemic pick-up from Warner Bros (hence it looking more like, you know, a real movie) and scored huge numbers for the streamer, capitalising on the popularity of its in-house young star, Stranger Things breakout Millie Bobby Brown. Based on the popular YA series by Nancy Springer, it was very much your teenage sister’s Sherlock Holmes but was sprightly enough for those outside the target demographic to understand the appeal. There’s more of the same in Enola Holmes 2, an equally boisterous romp that’s equally as hard to remember once it’s over but one that should keep its many fans engaged enough to warrant further sequels.
After the events of the first film, Enola has realised her calling, to follow in the footsteps of her famed detective brother. But when she launches her own agency, she finds clients hard to come by, forever living, and now trying to work, in Sherlock’s shadow. Opportunity knocks in the unlikely form of an impoverished young girl whose sister has gone missing. They both work at a local matchstick factory and Enola’s investigation soon goes from a missing girl to, you guessed it, an elaborate conspiracy.
Within a matter of minutes, any concern that Netflix might have damagingly downsized the scale and pomp of the first film (as they are wont to do with many of their cheaply made mockbusters) is addressed with a zippy high-speed chase scene through the handsomely reconstructed streets of 1880s London. It proceeds to feel grand and cinema-worthy throughout with budget bullishly up on display (Brown reportedly picked up a major $10m for her role) and it all makes for broad, decently diverting entertainment, a confidently packaged matinee caper.
Returning director Harry Bradbeer, no stranger to a fourth wall-breaking female protagonist having also directed the majority of Fleabag, and playwright-cum-screenwriter Jack Thorne, keep things chugging along expeditiously with a simple but effectively unravelled mystery that, again, cleverly ties into a real historical event (this time it’s the matchgirls’ strike of 1888). It’s vaguely educational then and also weaves in a message about the importance of balancing self-reliant independence with the need to ask for and accept help from others, something Thorne’s script manages without being overly sentimental. Brown is fine as Enola, if perhaps a little too over-pronounced, but it’s strangely Henry Cavill who once again steals the film as Sherlock. He might make for a physically well-suited yet otherwise rather bland Superman but when given something less sanded down and more idiosyncratic to play, he comes into his own (a mid-credits scene suggests that those involved are also hyper-aware of how fruitful this casting has been).
As with its predecessor and Ritchie’s films before that, it works better when sticking to the source and focusing on Enola’s mental prowess rather than her physicality. The joy in watching a Holmes use their wits to succeed is far greater than watching them use their fists and while it’s not exactly an invention (Arthur Conan Doyle did write Holmes as an expert boxer and swordsman), it’s something I wish the latest iterations would fall back on a little less. It too often feels as if the thrill of watching a mystery get solved is deemed too pedestrian or too small and so there’s a patronising tendency to cushion with less involving action scenes, brawn prioritised over brain. After Enola uses her skills as a fighter to get out of a dicey situation, a character asks “Why ever would she do that?” as if echoing one’s own sentiment. In a period where the whodunnit has been successfully resurrected, surely audiences aren’t quite so elementary.
Enola Holmes 2 is now out in cinemas and will be on Netflix on 4 November
