Enola Holmes 2 Movie Review: Millie Bobby Brown's Playful Adventure Targeted To Young Adults

Cast: Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, Helena Bonham Carter, David Thewlis
Director: Harry Bradbeer

This sequel to the original franchise starter Enola Holmes on Netflix is slightly better than its predecessor...but not by much. Enola Holmes (Millie Bobby Brown), the pesky, perky younger sister of you-know-who 'Sherlock Holmes' (Henry Cavill), returns in this effort to set up her own detective agency. And just when she is all set to accept defeat (in the then patriarchal England), she gets enticed into joining the search for the missing older sister of a little girl who works in a match factory.

Enola is approached by Bessie (Serrana Sul-Ling Bliss), a young matchgirl looking for her missing sister, Sarah. While much of this movie is fictional there's some truth to the Matchgirls' Strike which is portrayed in the movie - a true event that happened in1888 which screenwriter Jack Thorne uses as a showpiece of real-world woes. That event, in fact, inspired the Industry to take a hard look at safety measures for its employees.

The original young adults (YA) book-to-cinema franchise Enola Holmes was a hit for Netflix and that helped pitchfork this sequel. Sleuthing is approached from more than a decade younger point-of-view and the film has 'Stranger Things' actor Millie Bobby Brown becoming the pivot from whom the detective thrills emanate.

The wily teenager trying to get out of her older brother's sizeable shadow hopes to use her intellect to solve cases. The fact that nobody wants to give her a chance due to her age, gender, and relation to brother Sherlock is the biggest stumbling block.

Enola has to deal with the fallout of someone close to Sarah being murdered, and then Sherlock gets involved and so does Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge), Enola's crush and a politician in the House of Lords.

The targeted approach no doubt helps to tether the YA audience to this material. The love angle is part of that lure. The life-and-death situations are also par for the course.

Enola Holmes is a busybody getting into adventure, dancing, visiting prison, efficient in chases, street fights and performing daredevil stunts in the theatre, infiltrating the match factory offices, going for a ball, bonding with her older brother, meeting intriguing and suspicious characters - as she sets about solving her case.

The mystery is not all that intriguing and the runtime length tends to be tiresome.

The messaging is pretty strong though - employee welfare, corporate mismanagement and gender discrimination all come in for some strictures that are meaningful.

This detective adventure directed by Harry Bradbeer, adapted by Jack Thorne with Enola Holmes brought to vivid life by Millie Bobby Brown more or less has everything you loved about in the first movie. It has a good solid cast, some sharply etched performances and enough humour to keep you interested.