Enola Holmes 3 is at its best playing into its high energy, which works well with the slightly darker tone. But high energy is often mistaken for quick, attention-grabbing editing in this threequel.
Written by Eva Mohácsy
After four long years, Netflix darling Millie Bobby Brown returns as the titular character in Enola Holmes 3. The action-adventure movies track Brown’s coming of age as much as Enola’s — she was sixteen in 2020 when Enola Holmes debuted, and now, twenty-two, married, with a child as the third releases on the streaming giant. It’s this feeling of growing up together (even if she’s hit more milestones than most of us) that makes her one of the few iconic Gen Z stars — and the Enola Holmes series continues to be her best star vehicle yet amid a relatively undistinguished filmography.
Director Philip Barantini (Adolescence) takes over from previous director Harry Bradbeer (Fleabag) for the third installment to attune to this natural evolution. He skews the young-adult tone a bit darker and more mature in a move likened to what The Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) did for the Harry Potter series. While returning screenwriter Jack Thorne (Adolescence, Lord of the Flies) balances that shift with the same comic fourth-wall-breaking narration, this once-impactful throughline now feels less intuitive and more of a strategic move to keep us invested in what is otherwise a lackluster mystery.
The movie clearly wants to drop us into the middle of the action in Malta, where most of the film takes place — but goes against its better instincts by opening a year earlier to tease the impending mystery. It would be one thing if this opening scene held major significance once context is revealed, but no; it’s just one of many pieces in this plot-heavy puzzle. The movie cuts between the present and flashbacks so often that this could’ve easily been set anywhere else. Truly mourning the missed opportunity for a memorable opening image here — the first Enola Holmes (2020) opens with her on a bike, the second with her running on foot, and the third could have opened with her in the carriage, racing against the clock to her own wedding.
Enola (Bobby Brown) struggles with what it means to become a lady (lowercase "l"). If this all feels repetitive to the first two, it’s because it is (and this is really hammered in with all the flashbacks— the movie’s editing felt like a video essay at times, putting up past relevant clips just to showcase a point. I don’t want textual evidence; I want to feel something!) So, when Sherlock (Henry Cavill) emphasizes that she will become an uppercase "Lady" after this marriage, I found it to be an interesting complication: she’s taking on another name and history under not only patriarchy but the British Empire. It’s a tense fight between the siblings, and the basis of Enola’s internal stakes throughout the movie. She does not want to lose her autonomy to aristocracy, or a man, for that matter. But all this inner turmoil is resolved in two consecutive scenes during the denouement: first, Sherlock apologizes, stating that she is more than her Holmes name, and then Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge) gives up his title in a conversation by the sea. Enola’s arc is somewhat relevant, but not central enough to the mystery and its conclusion, a major strength of the previous two films.
When Sherlock and Lady Tewksbury (Hattie Morahan) disappear, Enola and Dr. Watson (Himesh Patel) follow the clues left behind. The leads put her face-to-face with Moriarty (Sharon Duncan-Brewster), who has escaped prison, come to Malta, and kidnapped Sherlock and Lady Tewkesbury for revenge — but there’s something bigger she’s after. Luckily, Enola’s mother, Eudoria (Helena Bonham Carter), shows up, eager to help her on the case.
There’s a lot of anti-colonial messaging throughout, showing the effects of Britain’s colonization of Malta on its people. It’s used primarily as a privilege check for Enola before becoming tied to what eventually devolves into a treasure hunt, but the story is not interested in exploring it much beyond that. When Enola questions the Brigadier about his involvement in the looting of Khost, he states that the British Empire cannot admit guilt. But by the end of the movie, he’s thanking Tewkesbury for making him and numerous other officials face punishment for their crimes. Absolutely nothing has changed except that it’s the end of the movie and it’s got to wrap up nicely. In the third act, when Moriarty poses some very valid questions to Enola about the Holmes’ complicity, they’re just left in the air to linger. There’s acknowledgement, but no action behind it.
The action sequences, however, are continually exciting and well-choreographed, especially the final climactic one between Enola and Moriarty. It’s a genuinely exciting moment, even as the plodding mystery winds down, and it made me wish the movie had grounded its emotional beats more fully in its own story instead of relying on the leftovers from the first two films. That way, moments like this could have landed even harder.
Enola Holmes 3 is at its best playing into its high energy, which works well with the slightly darker tone. But high energy is often mistaken for quick, attention-grabbing editing in this threequel, and while the performances may compare to previous ones, the mystery fails them.
After it’s all over, we do finally get a wedding. I’m curious to see where they go from here (because yes — there is a teaser for the next installment at the very end). It’s easy for characters to stagnate in marriages as they tend to limit a couple’s level of interpersonal conflict for a series like this. If they lean out and put the focus back on Enola as an individual for subsequent movies, they risk Tewkesbury’s relevance entirely. If they lean in, it all becomes too Nick and Nora. Maturity doesn’t have to mean a greater focus on romance, but the farther apart the films are released, the easier it becomes to lose sight of the girl detective story that should remain at their core.
Enola Holmes 3 is now streaming on Netflix.
Comments
Post a Comment