“The film’s stars deliver strong performances that keep the story moving and sweep you along on Enola’s adventure.”

Pros

• Millie Bobby Brown is endlessly entertaining
• Henry Cavill’s Sherlock Holmes feels contemporary and engaging
• Just the correct stability of motion, humor, and thriller

Cons

• Central thriller is a bit convoluted

The secret to creating a very good sequel is a thriller that has stumped quite a lot of filmmakers and studios through the years. Hollywood’s historical past is peppered with follow-up movies that couldn’t match their predecessors’ success, however every so often, a movie finds all the correct clues.

And often — as is the case with Enola Holmes 2 — they even make it look, effectively… elementary.

Growing up

Directed by Harry Bradbeer from a script by Jack Thorne, Enola Holmes 2 brings again Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things) because the titular, aspiring detective who typically finds herself within the shadow of her well-known brother, Sherlock, performed once more by Man of Steel star Henry Cavill. The movie finds Enola struggling to get her fledgling detective company off the bottom whereas immersed in a missing-person case with ties to the best ranges of presidency and business.

The first Enola Holmes did a beautiful job of introducing Brown because the title character, whose intelligent, perceptive nature was solely matched by her social awkwardness and knack for moving into bother. Brown made the position her personal, dealing with each the motion and the humor with ease, and exhibiting nice chemistry with not solely Cavill but in addition the movie’s viewers, because of Enola’s affinity for breaking the fourth wall and bringing viewers into her story.

All of that continues — and continues to develop — in Enola Holmes 2, which seems like a pure extension of the primary movie, from the story itself to Enola’s relationship with the encircling characters and the viewers. There’s a consolation degree within the franchise now that makes Enola really feel like an previous pal you’re checking in on, and she or he has a heck of a narrative to inform you.

Sherlock and Enola

Their efforts are supported by a nuanced efficiency from Cavill, whose model of Sherlock will get considerably extra display screen time and character growth this time round, however by no means overshadows Brown and her portrayal of Enola. Cavill’s Sherlock is simply as intellectually distant and socially awkward as Enola, however he’s good sufficient to understand that by being a person, the identical attributes that earn him admiration and respect work in opposition to his sister.

Cavill’s Sherlock isn’t an overtly emotional character, as an alternative, his sentiments and loyalties are explored by means of his interplay with Enola. It’s a intelligent strategy to instill heat and coronary heart in a personality identified for being comparatively chilly, and it’s dealt with with an appropriately delicate contact by Cavill and the movie’s inventive group.

The sport is afoot

Given the Holmes-ian basis of the movie — as filtered by means of writer Nancy Springer’s Enola Holmes novels, which have been tailored for the films — it’s a bit stunning that the weakest factor of Enola Holmes 2 is its central thriller.

Enola’s journey sweeps her into an enormous conspiracy involving a lacking girl, a matchstick manufacturing facility, and the British authorities, however the connection between all of the events concerned stays considerably opaque even after the third act’s huge, revelatory scene. Although Enola pulls again the curtain and divulges the villains, the narrative by no means fairly delivers the kind of “A-ha!” second we’ve come to count on from tales set in and around the globe of Sherlock Holmes. It’s a bit disappointing, actually, however the movie’s nice performances — which additionally embody a villainous inspector performed by David Thewlis and returning characters performed by Susie Wokoma and Helena Bonham Carter — carry Enola Holmes 2 at any time when the narrative will get slowed down in its personal thriller.

Fun, humorous, and impressively intelligent, Enola Holmes 2 is the uncommon sequel that not solely does effectively by its predecessor however expands on the franchise’s world in significant methods. The movie’s finale units the stage for extra tales to come back for Enola — and Sherlock, for that matter — and provides its followers loads of causes to stay up for becoming a member of them.

Directed by Harry Bradbeer, Enola Holmes 2 premieres November 4 on Netflix. 

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