Enola Holmes 2 Review
‘Tis she! After a two-year wait, Enola Holmes (Millie Bobby Brown), the elusive and sometimes reckless younger sister of Sherlock Holmes (Henry Cavill), is back on the big screen with a second movie. More action-packed than the first movie, Enola Holmes 2 follows the young detective as she searches for a missing match girl, ultimately uncovering a much larger scheme.
The first film followed Enola as she investigated the disappearance of her mother and explored her identity as a woman in 19th century England, breaking gender norms. Although the first and second movies share many elements, such as Enola breaking the fourth wall multiple times, the second movie is a more traditional mystery. Similar to a common Sherlock Holmes film, Enola Holmes 2 is more centered around the case of the missing match girl than Enola’s personal life. Nonetheless, Enola is not simply a male version of her brother. As a woman, she struggles to run her own detective company and convince people that she is just as competent as Sherlock. Additionally, her teenage attitude and stubbornness carries through to the second film, effectively building her own character separate from her famous brother. Although she puts herself in danger sometimes, Enola is used to being underestimated, so her pushiness often makes her a better detective.
Plotwise, I found the movie stellar. Enola’s match girl mystery, which spirals into a murder case, is heavily inspired by the Matchgirls’ strike of of the nineteenth century. Led by Sarah Chapman in 1888, the match girls employed by the company Bryant & May in London went on strike to protest low wages and unsafe working conditions. Despite their lack of political and social power at the time, these women were able to obtain better wages and working conditions. Although the company continued using dangerous phosphorus until 1901, this was one of the earliest successful industrial strikes. I found this storyline to be an effective complement to the feminist ideas that seem to be a trend within the Enola Holmes movies. Furthermore, Enola’s process of discovering how the match girl’s disappearance is linked to the company’s unsafe money-making scheme makes for an action-filled movie with a plethora of dramatic moments. I was on the edge of my seat for much of the movie, eager to find out what would happen next.
Despite her independence, Enola does not shy away from asking for help when she needs it, whether it be from Sherlock or her increasingly important love interest: Lord Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge). Critics claim that Enola being “trapped” into having a love interest takes away from the feminism of the movie. However, I contend that defining Enola’s independence and likeability based on a man plays into the idea that a woman cannot define herself. In the first movie, Enola was saved from being stabbed by the thick material in her corset, which already showed us how being feminine is not equivalent to being weak. Similarly, female characters are not weaker when they have love interests; rather, they define their strength themselves. Enola’s persistence in solving her case coupled with the feminist history of the 1888 Matchgirls’ Strike is not diminished by Tewkesbury’s presence. In actuality, Enola and Tewkesbury’s relationship provides valuable moments of humor and a touch of romance that adds to the overall feeling of the film.
Overall, the movie lived up to my expectations. For all its political awareness and historical references, Enola Holmes 2, like the first movie, is still a fun mystery film. Millie Bobby Brown did an amazing job bringing her character to life, so I never felt bored, even while watching some weaker scenes. I hope that any new Enola Holmes stories are as creative as the first two movies have been.
BY MAHI MIRCHANDANI