‘Enola Holmes 2’: action scenes need to improve

Film Review
Tinashe Kusema

You know a movie got under your skin when you take every opportunity to quote scenes from the film to the point of annoyance.

It takes an exceptionally written script, and matching performance to boot, for a film to get me hooked to such extremes, and in my 30 to 40 years of existence, there are just a handful of films and actors that have managed to achieve such a feat.

So far, only James Spader, in his Raymond Reddington (Blacklist) and Alan Shore (Boston Legal) monikers, has managed to achieve this feat with some semblance of consistency.

Now, we can add Millie Bobby Brown to that list as this was the case for me after my second or third viewing of Netflix’s “Enola Holmes 2”, the mystery flick that chronicles the trials and tribulations of the youngest of the Holmes siblings.

You know, the Holmes siblings of the Sherlock variety. It took every ounce of willpower I had, not to open this week’s instalment with a “Tis I”, “The game is afoot” or something along those lines.

Now, this is hardly a barometer that I use to judge the worth of a movie, and, if I am being totally honest, “Enola Holmes 2” is hardly a perfect movie. It lacks the charm and humour of its predecessor, wastes arguably one of the most intriguing characters in the Holmes story and has a half-baked plot.

However, I digress.

“Enola Holmes 2” picks up soon after the events of the first movies, as our titular character decides to really branch out of her brother’s shadow and open up her own detective agency.

Unfortunately, there is not a big market for clients eager to employ the services of a female teenage detective, especially when her more famous brother Sherlock (Henry Cavill) is just around the corner. Enola (Brown) does eventually get her first client in Bessie (Serrana Su-Ling Bliss), a young girl eager to find her adoptive sister Sarah Chapman (Hannah Dodd), who has mysteriously disappeared and is believed to have got herself in trouble with her bosses at a local matchstick-making company.

Enola follows the clues, and finds out that there is more to the story than a mere missing person’s case. Without revealing too much, let us just say bodies start dropping, corrupt policemen are revealed and a web of corruption unravels. Across town, her elder brother Sherlock has his own case, and the more he follows the clues, the sooner it becomes apparent that the two Holmes’ cases are connected.

Much like in the first movie, released back in 2020, Millie Bobby Brown’s performance is what carries this movie, and she puts up yet another great turn as the titular character.

She comes off as charming and funny, and really appears to have a grasp of the material, especially when she moves from the humorous parts to the more emotional scenes.

She hardly skips a beat.

Henry Cavill has a bigger role this time around, and it is the chemistry and banter between the Superman actor and Brown that really shine the brightest.

For future instalments, assuming there is a third movie coming, the fourth wall breaking really needs to be taken down a notch or two.

It takes the audience’s attention from the story, especially when done in excess.

The action scenes really need to improve, too, and it is my hope that Moriarty is the only character from the Sherlock Holmes canon they ruin. The Moriarty reveal was handled very poorly as the character virtually played no part in the overall storyline except for some mild references.

I chalk this up to the poor writing that connected Sherlock Holmes’ case and that of his sister. Now that Dr Watson (Himesh Patel) has joined the party, the hope is that Netflix follows through with a standalone Sherlock Holmes movie and stops blurring the lines between the two characters.