Fans of the popular Enola Holmes series will be delighted with the third entry about Sherlock’s courageous and determined younger sister who shares his passion for puzzles and crimes, now on Netflix. This one has the same high spirits as the earlier chapters and hints at a fourth in the works. Those who are not as entertained by characters breaking the fourth wall to talk to the audience, shifts in time, some arch air quotes, and plot elements some might consider unnecessarily “woke” should consider trying something else. I found it great fun.
Enola (Millie Bobby Brown, also a producer) was a schoolgirl in the first entry. By the second, she was an adult with a newly established detective agency of her own, and, at the end, her archenemy was in prison, and she was in love with the handsome, wealthy, charming, utterly supportive, and titled Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge). Happily ever after? Well, that would not be much fun, would it?
The third begins with a brief and mysterious scene in a prison cell. A well-dressed man tells a shackled prisoner whose face we do not see, “It is a shame to leave a mind as brilliant as yours rotting in such a hole… We can make it look as if you escaped.” And then the catch, a reference to the name Tewkesbury and some “misplaced” items. The brilliant mind and the missing items are the foundation for the rest of the story.
And then we see Tewkesbury at the cathedral, waiting for his bride to come down the aisle. For complicated reasons, Enola tells us, the wedding is in Malta, an island in the Mediterranean that was then a British colony.
But she is back at home, in her wedding dress, fretting about whether she should go through with it. “I’ve spent six years making myself feel worthy of the Holmes name. Would I now be giving that up?” She has no doubts about Tewkesbury, but major doubts about the societal expectations and limitations of a wife’s life, especially in the nobility. She was perfectly happy with life as it was, Tewkesbury promoting progressive causes in the House of Lords while her brother’s detective agency helped those with means and hers helped those with needs. Enola rushes off to get married but is stopped along the way by Dr. Watson (Himesh Patel), who tells her that her brother Sherlock has been kidnapped. So, she never makes it to the wedding.
There are clues, ciphers, and mysteries (one of the unsolved mysteries is how her wedding dress stays clean for so long through the adventures in the first act), along with chases and fights, fire and explosions, looted treasure, and a monologuing villain. The explosions are mostly courtesy of Enola’s mother (Helena Bonham Carter), a literal bomb-thrower who has some handy Molotov cocktails and timely advice: “A puzzle is always as mischievous as the setter.”
There are family conflicts, and there are issues of feminism and references to colonizers. A character coolly informs a Maltese native that, because Enola is British, she is superior and not subject to their laws. While the casting is race-blind, a character of color quietly explains that he cannot walk alongside Enola in public and must instead follow her, pretending to be a servant.
The style of storytelling is energetic, with quick cutaways to headlines both real (in the world of the movie) and imagined (as Enola thinks about what might happen). The action scenes are dynamic and exciting, the puzzles are clever, the romance is endearing, and Enola’s commitment to fairness ahead of her society is satisfying. Production design by Gary Williamson and costumes by Consolata Boyle immerse us in the Victorian world. Brown is ideally cast as Enola, true-hearted, passionate, determined, and fearless. When she speaks directly to us, it feels good to be part of her story.
