I loved the first Enola Holmes movie, which dropped out of nowhere on Netflix just as the world was heading into lockdown in 2020. It was precisely the kind of comfort movie I needed, and one that I've returned to many times since.
The sequel, released in 2022, was a disastrous bore, which I've promptly forgotten since turning away from it. So, it was with some trepidation that I returned for the third instalment, called Enola Holmes 3, which arrives on Netflix today after a four-year gap between films.
Happily, it is a much better film than the second one. Sadly, it's nowhere near the quality of the first, which feels like lightning in a bottle with each passing year.
Enola Holmes 3 begins and ends with an odd sense of finality for Millie Bobby Brown's titular sleuth. At times, the film plays like a conclusion to a trilogy that has only the flimsiest continuity. At other times, it has a freewheeling sense of a condensed season of television setting up another adventure. Like many productions in this streaming age, it's a film paced like a series, the same way as something like The Skeleton Crew was a series paced like a film.
At 1 hour and 40 minutes, Enola Holmes 3 feels at least 30 minutes too long. Its middle section, which is an exhausting mix of exposition and convoluted plotting, moves briskly, but contains so little meat that, for the most part, you could do anything else while watching and still keep up. For a series about mysteries and picking up clues, it frustratingly spends far too much time explaining every little thing to the audience.
The script, written by returning series writer Jack Thorne, packs in so many story elements that it's no wonder there's no room for subtlety or downtime. In the first half hour, we get flashbacks, flash forwards, kidnappings, chases, returning villains, mystical spirit mentorship, romantic drama, and more new characters than any previous film combined. It should be exciting, but instead feels messy and like too many cooks in the kitchen. As if the filmmakers know they've only got one movie left, so better put everything in just in case.
Yet this was an issue in the terrible sequel as well. Somehow, despite the brilliant introductory film in 2020, neither of the follow-ups trusts in Brown's inherent charisma and likeability. Enola is enough; we don't need to put on this much of a show around her.
But that's precisely what happens, and Enola Holmes 3 forces our hero into multiple new partnerships and hangers-on, including a now painfully annoying inclusion of her mother, played by Helena Bonham-Carter, who trudges in to collect a paycheck.
Some of the supporting roles are genuinely great, yet they receive none of the attention they desire. Himesh Patel is marvelous as Dr. Watson, and I loved every minute of his gently acerbic witticisms in dealing with the Holmes family. He tells Enola of how he and Sherlock (Henry Cavill, still playing himself) first became friends, and it's easily one of the highlights of the movie. Which is kind of the problem, as it has nothing to do with Enola, who is often the least interesting part of any scene she's in.
Then there's the ugly air of colonialism and rewriting history, as Enola Holmes 3 attempts to tackle the brutal history of British rule in Malta. In one of the most tone-deaf and upsetting parts, the filmmakers introduce a running gag as a Maltese freedom fighter (Joe Azzopardi) insists on introducing himself with a long spiel about driving the British out. His character barely registers otherwise, leaving the entire thing as a repugnant joke that attempts to downplay history. It doesn't fit the lighthearted tone. Instead, it comes off as mean-spirited and petty.
Then there's Sharon Duncan-Brewster, who fully understands the assignment as Moriarty, and once again delivers a wonderfully hammy and spirited performance that lights up the film every time she's on screen. The bits where she and Brown trade barbs and match wits are once more the best parts of the movie. It's a shame there are so few of them.
Should you watch Enola Holmes 3? Well, the answer is that you probably already have, as it's one of Netflix's big winners if the numbers are to be believed. But it's also frustratingly the kind of film you can leave on in the background; a kind of second-screen content masterclass. It looks lovely, the cast is uniformly fine, and it's just brisk enough that you rarely look up and go, "oh, it's still on?"
But it's not a must-see family film like the first one, either. It didn't leave me with a grin that lasted all week, and it does nothing it isn't contractually obligated to do. If the first one could have been a tremendous summer blockbuster, Enola Holmes 3 feels far more at home in Netflix's modern direct-to-video lineup. It's notable in that it's not a disaster nor a waste of time, but that's a low, low bar to cross.
