When people hear the last name “Holmes”, their mind instantly darts to the great detective Sherlock Holmes and his trusty sidekick Dr. Watson. So when the first Enola Holmes movie came out in 2020, I was very intrigued. I have always loved a good mystery or ”Who done it” movie or show. I thoroughly enjoyed the first film and Enola Holmes 2 was a superb continuation of that. Enola Holmes 2 is another movie in this franchise which stars Millie Bobby Brown as the sister of Sherlock Holmes, Enola, and just like her older sibling, she excels at solving puzzles and mysteries. We got introduced to her as a young child where her mother, who she was raised with her entire life, left everything. The first movie showed her adventure to try and find her long lost heroine. Enola Holmes (2020) ended in a very satisfying way yet had a cliff hanger than hinted at a sequel.
I was very excited when I first heard that they are going to make a sequel. I am a huge fan of Henry Cavill and seeing him on the big screen again peaks my interest. Millie Bobby Brown has been trending high again ever since Stranger Things season 4 came out so throwing them together for a second time was a brilliant move. Brown and Cavill work so well together, at times it almost seems like they are siblings in real life. They wrote these characters in such a way that they understand each other and have similar characteristics but also gave strengths and weaknesses to both of them.
Many actors have dawned the mask, or should I say hat and pipe, of Sherlock Holmes. Robert Downey Jr, Benedict Cumberbatch, Basil Rathbone and Peter Cushing are just a few. And now we see the great Henry Cavill portray the great detective for the second time in 2 years. I, myself, have only seen RDJ and Benedict Cumberbatch on the big screen along with Cavill. Each one of them gave a different characteristic when they each played him. RDJ showed the more comical side with Cumberbatch having a more serious tone. Cavill, in my opinion, shows a little bit of both.
With a similar direction of the first movie, instead of Enola finding her mother, in Enola Holmes 2 she now has to try and find a missing girl. She starts off thinking this will be just a simple missing person case but she is surprised to find out that not all is what it may seem. We get introduced to characters that we have previously seen such as Sherlock, Tewkesbury, Edith and Lestrade. We also see some new faces such as inspector Grail played by David Thewlis and Mira Troy played by Sharon Duncan-Brewster. The two new characters that we see were amazingly written and portrayed.
One thing that this movie does perfectly was the great callbacks and repetitive jokes they included. Sometimes this doesn’t always work but the way they do it in this movie worked. There are also a few other neat effects they added into the first movie, and they continued with this movie. One of the main themes in these movies are word puzzles and games between Enola and her mother. Some of the explaining the movie does is use paper with pictures and words to show what the narrator (Enola) is talking about. This only happens in a few other movies, and I really liked how they did it in this movie. The other thing that this movie has that is seldom seen in others is the fourth wall breaks. Enola is the only character to break the fourth wall and she explains herself, the situation and how she is going to solve the case. There are also a few comedic instances where something dumb happens in the movie and she stares into the camera acting like “Really, did that really just happen?” and Brown pulls it off perfectly and was the perfect cast for someone like Enola Holmes.
Final Thoughts
Enola Holmes 2 is an excellent film depicting the Holmes’ family as they try to figure out new and more difficult cases. I am so looking forward to what they have in store for the future and how they are going to tie in that little cameo in the post credit scene.
