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Enola Holmes 2
UK / USA 2022
produced by Millie Bobby Brown, Paige Brown, Alex Garcia, Ali Mendes, Mary Parent, Harry Bradbeer (executive), Michael Dreyer (executive), Joshua Grode (executive), Jane Houston (executive), Jack Thorne (executive) for PCMA Productions/Warner Brothers, Legendary, Netflix
directed by Harry Bradbeer
starring Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, David Thewlis, Louis Partridge, Susan Wokoma, Adeel Akhtar, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Helena Bonham Carter, Sofia Stavrinou, John Parshall, Himesh Patel, Hannah Dodd, Abbie Hern, Róisín Monaghan, Gabriel Tierney, Catriona Chandler, David Westhead, Tim McMullan, Lee Boardman, Serrana Su-Ling Bliss, Tony Lucken, Alessandra Perotto, Alan Mitchell, Chris Dunckley, Lenny Rush, Alison Knox, Christopher Saul, Brahmdeo Shannon Ramana, Karishma Navekar, Clive Ward, Elizabeth Hill, Nick Raggett, Sue Graham, Mark Fleischmann, Stefan Peterman, Archie Caswell-Chappell, Matthew Brazier, Julian Wallace, Donovan Louie, Nia Gandhi, Alannah Winn-Taylor, Peter Groom, Charlie Nicholson, Eleanor Dang
story by Harry Bradbeer, Jack Thorne, screenplay by Jack Thorne, based on the Enola Holmes Mysteries book series by Nancy Springer, based on characters created by Arthur Conan Doyle, music by Daniel Pemberton, special effects by Lidar Lounge, visual effects by Argon Effects, Spin VFX, The Yard VFX
Enola Holmes, Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes (Henry Cavill), Moriarty
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Encouraged by everything that has happened in the first
movie, Enola Holmes (Millie Bobby Brown) decides to open her own
detective agency. However, due to the fact that she's both teenaged and a
girl prospective clients don't have confidence in her, and after a few
weeks Enola wants to already shut down shop due to lack of business, when
in walks little Bessie (Serrana Su-Ling Bliss), a little girl from the
work houses who wants Enola to look for her sister Sarah. For this, Enola
goes undercover in the matchstick factory Sarah and Bessie work at, breaks
into the head office, as Sarah was supposed to have done ... and finds
little of consequence but a register with a few pages missing. She also
learns that Sarah had a second job as a dancing girl at the Paragon,
and was said to have an affair with one of the establishment's clients -
but questioning around at the Paragon, Enola gets on the wrong foot of Mae
(Abbie Hern), Sarah's best friend and confidante who suspects Enola to be
a spy. Eventually, Enola finds a note that might lead to Sarah and her
secret admirer's lovenest, but when she arrives there, she finds Mae,
presently dying from a stab wound, and trying to save her (even though she
was already too far gone), she's captured by inspector Lestrade (Adeel
Akhtar) and Super Intendend Grail (David Thewlis), who promptly suspect
her of the murder, upon which she has to make a hasty escape - and call
upon her big brother Sherlock (Henry Cavill), who's more than happy to
help her, especially since he's working on a case that leads to the same
matchstick factory Bessie and Sarah are working at, where the owner, Lyon
(David Westhead), and treasury minister McIntyre (Tim McMullan) seem to be
involved in a case of murder and blackmail. And even though her brother
tells her to stay put, Enola goes to a ball where all the suspects are
gathered, including Lyon's son William (Gabriel Tierney), whom she has
figured out to be Sarah's lover. There's also Enola's own love interest,
Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge), who has by now become a member of the House
of Lords and is said to do lots of good. Enola confronts William, and he
kind of admits to things but is evasive of others - but then Enola is
arrested, and Grail promises to see her hang for the murder, and it seems
not even Sherlock can help her out this time around ... but their mother
(Helena Bonham Carter) can, just blowing a hole into the prison wall, and,
together with her right hand woman Edith (Susan Wokoma) they make good her
escape. Enola and Sherlock want to go to face William, but find him dead,
murdered, and when they tell his love interest, Cicely, they find out that
she's actually Sarah dressed up as a society lady, and she and William
wanted to expose the working conditions in his father's matchstick
factory, which is why she stole the pages of the register from head office
- pages that are hidden in the Paragon. But when Sherlock, Enola and
Tewkesbury go there to find them, they have to face Grail and company in a
rather brutal fight that ends in Grail falling to his death. But our
heroes find the missing pages, but enter McIntyre, who destroys the pages
- he's in league with Lyon and gets a share of the matchstick factory's
profits, that have been soaring ever since they used phosphor in the
production of the matchstick, phosphor that's poisonous for the workforce
and kills many of thge worker there. But if William and Sarah only wanted
to expose the conditions at the factory, who's behind the blackmail and
extortion? Now that may be Mira (Sharon Duncan-Brewster), McIntyre's
unconspicious secretary who's actually the criminal genius Moriarty, who
of course gets arrested on the spot (but later escapes). And what about
the girls in the matchstick factory? Sarah, Enola and company have risked
everything to get proof and now it's gone up in flames. But they know the
truth, and with that, Sarah Chapman (an actual historical figure)
organizes the first workers strike ... Now the second Enola
Holmes film is certainly an improvement over the first
one, basically because it can allow itself to waste less time on
exposition and dive into the main plot right away. And even though some of
the elements in this murder mystery are a bit forced - which is rather
genre immanent -, the film moves at a brisk enough pace, featuring many
action setpieces without ever going all-out spectacle, features a healthy
share of humour without ever going moronic, and even some romance without
going sappy, and Millie Bobby Brown once again proves she can carry a
movie. Now sure, at the end the film becomes a bit talky as everything
needs to be explained away, and the strike as the film's one coda (the
other is finally introducing a Doctor Watson [Himesh Patel] to Henry
Cavill's Holmes) comes across as rather cheesy, but in all, this sure is a
fun romp that's bound to entertain.
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