It was a wise decision from screenwriter Jack Thorne to create Enola Holmes 2 from scratch. Enola Holmes 2 is set apart from the Nancy Springer books that based Enola Holmes 1. Enola Holmes 2 borrows from the real-life story of Sarah Chapman, a young woman who helped bring gender and labor reform in a matchstick factory in 1888. There are fights. Murders. Mysteries. Fun and frolic. Ballgowns. Bombs. What’s not to love?
Starring Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, Helena Bonham Carter, and David Thewlis with Susie Wokoma, Adeel Akhtar, and Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Enola Holmes 2 is a far more enjoyable ride than its predecessor. It’s filled with all the right messaging in all the right quantities. Therefore it avoids the overreaching preach and the watered-down sexism that could have been easy traps for a film like this to fall into.
Watch the trailer of Enola Holmes 2:
The film begins with Enola setting up her detective agency which is failing remarkably because no one takes her seriously (because she’s a young woman) but just as she’s about to give up, she meets a young girl looking for her sister. As Enola breaks the fourth wall about four hundred times, the movie catapults to different scenarios, each more enjoyable than the last.
There’s something delightful about a well-written, well-executed murder mystery, and Enola Holmes 2 delivers all that and leaves you wanting more. Henry Cavill, with his extraordinarily good looks, charm and clear stardom, never takes over the narrative – while having the stronger character and backstory (he’s THE Sherlock Holmes). Millie Bobby Brown remains disarmingly charming. Add Helena Bonham Carter’s impeccable performance and you’ve got a perfect winner.
Enola Holmes 2 is filled with a lot of important elements about labor and women’s rights. It makes the necessary points while also being entertaining and enjoyable. The idea, perhaps, is not to preach and overdo the lessons. The idea is to execute a fun character who makes mistakes. She falls and gets up. She fails and succeeds after learning from her failures. The men in her life are aware of their own stature and respect her — though it is quite a journey for some of them. But it all remains fun and ties well into the larger story of trying to solve a missing girl.
Given Netflix’s struggle with a lot of its content being subpar in term of script, Enola Holmes 2 is not only a class apart but hopefully will lift Netflix out of its slump (I’d like to think the content team is breathing a sigh of relief right now). And if we were lucky, we might even get Enola Holmes 3 — or even better, a webseries! Needless to say it will be better (if it goes down the same path) than the skullduggery Marvel is trying to push at us.