Enola Holmes 3 review: Millie Bobby Brown starrer retains earnestness of franchise’s first two films
Make no mistake, it is a minor miracle that Enola Holmes, the Netflix film franchise which had its first outing in 2020, hasn’t been corrupted by everything that has happened in the past half-decade. The franchise has survived two Trump administrations, a pandemic and whatever the Russo Brothers (filmmakers Joe and Anthony Russo, known for directing four Marvel films) have done to the streaming industry (they reportedly tried to revolutionise the space with offerings like Citadel and The Electric State, but received limited success). And yet somehow, the Enola Holmes movies — revolving around the adventures of the newly-imagined sister of English literature’s legendary detective, Sherlock Holmes — are still as earnest as ever.
Like its two excellent predecessors, Enola Holmes 3, which lands on Netflix on July 1, combines a youthful exuberance with moments of unexpected gravity. Not that the young aren’t capable of being serious, but this time, the titular heroine, played by actor Millie Bobby Brown, can’t simply get away with things because the adults underestimate her. The world expects her to behave like the lady she has become.
A darker version of these films would’ve focused on the abandonment trauma that Enola has been living with. She was forced to take care of herself from a very young age, while her mother suffered for the future of womankind and her illustrious brothers — Sherlock and Mycroft — upheld the family’s honour as prominent figures in London. In Enola Holmes 3, the spunky heroine is left to wonder if the Holmes family name is even worth fighting for.
Marriage to mystery
The movie unfolds entirely on the island of Malta, where Enola and her partner, Tewkesbury, have decided to conduct their destination wedding. Tewkesbury, played by Louis Partridge, couldn’t be happier. He’s the sort of boyfriend you see at malls, carrying their partner’s designer bag on their shoulder with zero self-consciousness. A cynic would describe him as a performative male, but Enola Holmes is no cynic. To her, Tewkesbury is the greenest flag in the world.
Enola has to put her marriage to Tewkesbury on hold when Sherlock is kidnapped. Photo: Netflix
But she’s having pre-wedding jitters. Late to her ceremony, Enola is accosted by a breathless Dr. Watson, who tells her that Sherlock has been kidnapped. The world-famous sleuth had begrudgingly agreed to attend the wedding, after giving Enola a piece of his mind. Trust someone as uppity as Sherlock to swoop in with unsolicited advice at precisely the wrong time, cosplaying as the father figure that he has actively avoided being all his life. Enola rightfully tells him to keep his advice to himself. But even she can’t feign indifference when Sherlock is taken. It is up to her to rescue him; the wedding will have to wait.
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Enola Holmes 3 is the first film of the trilogy not to be directed by Harry Bradbeer, who put his experience gained from the television series Fleabag to good use in the first two films. This one has been directed by Philip Barantini, who broke out just last year with the record-breaking Netflix series Adolescence. He’s still just starting out, but Barantini has already developed a flair for single-take sequences. All four episodes of Adolescence were designed to appear like they’d been shot in one long, unbroken take. Ditto for Barantini’s acclaimed feature film Boiling Point, which followed the chef of a reputable London restaurant over a particularly challenging dinner service.
Somewhat surprisingly, Enola Holmes 3 doesn’t bear Barantini’s signature at all. It is about as anonymously directed as an episode of Stranger Things, with which this franchise shares lead actor Brown. Enola Holmes 3 is yet another reminder of what she is capable of.
The big reveal
The movie isn’t all natty one-liners and knowing looks at the camera. Brown is often required to play a person who’s playacting as someone else entirely; it’s a performance within a performance. Enola doesn’t always have all the answers, but she must exude confidence when others turn to her for support.
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Traveling to Malta broadens her mind; the position of repute that her family has seemingly toiled hard to earn, Enola learns, was likely ill-gotten. It is on this adventure that she meets a young rebel who hopes to one day overthrow the British empire; the man opens her eyes about where she comes from and for the first time, the franchise explains why Himesh Patel has been cast in the role of Watson. The character’s Indianness is crucial to his identity here. But Enola’s biggest reality check comes from the film’s antagonist, Moriarty. Suffice to say that the character isn’t the adversary the Sherlock Holmes novels have prepared us to expect; anything more might act as a spoiler.
Much like Killmonger from Black Panther, Moriarty is the rare antagonist whose motivations make complete sense in the context of the story. Even if Enola doesn’t agree with her methods, she can’t question her politics. More than anyone else, including her own family, it’s Moriarty who acts as a catalyst for Enola’s growth. It’s almost elementary.
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