Well, Enola Holmes reeled me right in for the second time. Mystery, adventure, romance…what more could you ask for? It doesn’t quite pack the punch its predecessor did (pun intended), but Enola Holmes 2 has nonetheless been rightfully added to my roster of comfort movies.
This tale begins with Enola (the younger, spritely sister of Sherlock Holmes, for anyone not in the know) passionately opening her own detective agency – and failing miserably. Surprise, surprise, nobody in this fictional Victorian-era England believes that a young woman can do anything worthwhile. But in classic Enola Holmes fashion, this is an assumption she is determined to disprove.
Just when Enola thinks her endeavour has all been for nothing, a little girl comes to her seeking help in finding her missing sister. The game is afoot! Enola unravels clue after clue, leading her into trouble through the dark, corrupted schemes of the matchmaking business, admirably based on the true story of the 1888 matchmaker girls’ strike.
I adore how the movie encourages us to hate old, rich, white men who profit off oppressing others, even more than we were already. That, alongside the POC representation, adds a much-appreciated modern dynamic to a movie that would otherwise stick to the era’s conventional portrayals.
Millie Bobby Brown’s Enola Holmes is just as endearing as ever (I will never get tired of her breaking the fourth wall). The sequel develops her character as a burgeoning feminist icon, following in the footsteps of her eccentric mother, played by the queen herself, Helena Bonham Carter.
However, as much as I like the character of Enola, it’s certainly not Brown’s best role. She’s very good at playing exactly what she is supposed to, but as a young actress, she has so much potential that could be better used in stories with deeper, more complex personal issues.
I never pass up a nicely packaged mystery movie, but it’s true that it doesn’t have the wittiest dialogue (a few too many cliches here and there) or the cleverest plot. There’s a suspicious number of perfectly timed coincidences throughout the story for me to take it too seriously.
But as much as Enola Holmes 2 can be cheesy, it doesn’t necessarily seek to be a terribly thought-provoking film in the first place. We have to take it at face value, appreciating the easily digestible mystery, as well as the absolutely scrumptious romance.
I must admit, I swooned enough times while watching that I had to take a breather. The friends-to-lovers storyline between Viscount Tewkesbury, now a radical member of Parliament (we love a progressive man), and Enola is sweet and uncomplicated, save for the expected teenaged awkwardness between the two.
Their relationship also beautifully contradicts typical gender roles of the time; Enola, as a jiu-jitsu badass forced to attend a ball, asks Tewkesbury to teach her to dance. Later, Tewkesbury shyly asks Enola to teach him to fight.
I’m sure the writing team planted these suffragette undertones to specifically entice the woke youths of our generation, which is questionable in practice, but ultimately I have to support the message the movie gets across. There are certainly some lovely quotes in Enola Holmes 2 that left me with a smile on my feminist face.
Although all the old, male Victorians question female power and intelligence, the movie ultimately leaves no doubt in the watcher’s mind that women are capable of absolutely everything they set their minds to. If the movie has a main redeeming factor, it is this.
So, don’t depend on Enola Holmes 2 being a high-quality film to brag to your friends about. Although it may not be stellar, it’s more of a curl-up-on-the-couch-in-a-depressive-funk kind of good.
But if you never do watch the movie, at least keep this in mind, ladies. In the wise words of Enola’s mother, “She is a troublemaker. She knows something, and that is infinitely more dangerous”.