- Fans of Harry Bradbeer's first Enola Holmes movie will be happy to hear that its sequel delivers more of the same. This time around, Enola (Millie Bobby Brown) is on the trail of a missing girl (Hannah Dodd) who worked alongside her adopted sisters (Serrana Su-Ling Bliss, Abbie Hern) at a matchstick factory in the throes of a typhus epidemic. The powers that be (Time McMullan, David Westhead, Gabriel Tierney) all seem exceedingly unhelpful, and the police superintendant (David Thewlis) works to actively thwart justice. Sherlock Holmes (Henry Cavill) and Lord Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge) contribute their fair share of assistance, as do the Holmes matriarch and suffragette bomber Eudoria Holmes (Helena Bonham Carter) and her co-conspirator Edith (Susie Wokoma).
- As in the previous installment, Enola Holmes 2 features impressive period settings and costuming filmed in a very modern style infused with short takes, rapid cuts, and fourth wall-breaking asides. The plot incorporates London's "Matchgirl's Strike" of 1888 effectively, and its treatment of women's rights covers everything from women-owned businesses to chaperoned balls. My primary complaint about this film is that it amplifies Sherlock's role in a way that inadvertently works against promoting stories about women. While Inspector Lestrade (Adeel Akhtar) is perhaps allowed to be a Sherlock fanboy, the addition of both a famous Holmes villain (Sharon Duncan-Brewster) and an even more famous Holmes redoubtable companion (Himesh Patel) suggest that Enola is getting increasingly sidelined by her famous older brother. I can't imagine that she would appreciate that.
