Enola Holmes 2 Review: Millie Bobby Brown Shines In An Engaging Sequel
Editor’s note (from Keelia): On October 27th, two of the New York Wallflower girls, Alyssa and myself, were lucky enough to attend the world premiere of Enola Holmes 2, starring Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, and Helena Bonham Carter. Enjoy Alyssa’s review below:
Millie Bobby Brown will win over her teen audience again, but the movie can go too far with the theme that girls are way better than boys.
In the sequel to Netflix’s 2020 teen smash hit Enola Holmes, Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things) brings the spunky, headstrong Holmes sister to life again in Enola Holmes 2. After struggling to get her own detective agency off the ground, Enola is ready to give up the life of a sleuth before it even begins. Until one day, a young girl, desperate to find her adopted sister, shows up on Enola’s doorstep. To Enola’s delight, this means a new game is afoot. She races through the streets of late 19th-century London pulling at loose threads until she gets her answers.
Millie Bobby Brown is fun to watch as Enola. Unlike so many teen movies, she is a teenager playing a teenager, not a 20-something pretending to be one. She comes across as earnest, silly, innocent, and smart at different times in the story. Her break-the-fourth wall style and sheer joy in character all seem genuine, as though she might actually be a YouTubing detective, similar to how Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock was a blogging one.
What is interesting about this movie is how they actually let Enola be naive. She is not a great detective…yet. She has a lot of growing to do and older, wiser Sherlock (Henry Cavill) has to help her out of a few self-inflicted scrapes. This is a positive theme: skills must be honed, wisdom learned. She is no Mary Sue. She is a young girl with some natural talent who could grow to be a great detective, equal to her brother, but in time.
There are parts where the girls are sooo much better than boys theme goes too far. For instance, should we really believe that Henry Cavill (who also played Superman) would leave an 18-year-old girl unscathed in a wrestling match? I was uncomfortable seeing David Thewlis’ (Harry Potter) character, a corrupt cop, punch Enola in the face at one point because I don’t like the idea of normalizing violence against women. But that’s where the logic that Enola can take on any man went.
And in the reverse, I also see elements of women putting men down and getting away with it, which is equally as unhealthy. They’ve made Enola, her mom Eudoria Holmes (Helena Bonham Carter), and mentor Edith (Susan Wokoma) into jiu-jitsu fighters who can take down any man, no matter how well-armed or strong. This is cartoonish, enough to merit an eye roll.
Imposing 21st-century feminism on 19th-century feminism is always tricky. It can easily become a farce. Back then, the fight was for the right to vote and to own property, and winning those fights took a long time. Certain elements of women’s fight for fairness in this film are based on actual events and ground the story in an interesting point in history.
The women of Enola Holmes 2, however, are not women of their time, they are women of ours. Enola rebels against the idea of being ladylike and not only breaks but is unaware of social norms that would have been the standard in 1800s England. This type of behavior makes it hard to forget that she is a 2000s kid in a period costume.
That said, there is one moment between Enola and her mom that I found to be a helpful critique of the more extreme move towards total independence. Eudoria Holmes warns her daughter of the loneliness of going it on your own. She realizes she may have raised her kids to be too independent. She encourages Enola not to forsake her growing feelings for the boy who could become a loving beau and equal partner in the fight for justice.
With her mom’s advice, Enola leans into this romance, much to the happiness and squeals of the young girls who also attended the screening. Giving this maternal, learned-from-experience advice to the young women who will watch Enola Holmes 2 is positive. Based on the heightened audience reaction, I would offer this note to producers who want to make movies for young women: they like the boy/girl parts much more than the fighting.
Enola Holmes 2 is just over two hours yet manages to keep you engaged the whole time. If the cheering of the girls around me is an indicator, this Holmes franchise will once again soar with its target audience. Enola Holmes 2 hits Netflix on November 4.
