The Game’s Afoot: “Enola Holmes 2”

This may come as a shock, but Millie Bobby Brown is the real deal. She is in one of the biggest series on streaming, has been in two blockbusters (kaiju films, at that - “Godzilla: KIng of the Monsters” and “Godzilla vs. Kong”), started her own production company at sixteen, and stars in and produces the Enola Holmes films for Netflix. I really liked the first one from a couple of years ago and genuinely love the second one that just premiered on November 4. 

I won’t go on at too great length because it is fresh enough and likely to be seen by more people (than, say, “Triangle of Sadness”) and I don’t want to spoil it so soon out of the gate. However, I have to say that Harry Bradbeer, who also directed, and Jack Thorne have made a superior sequel by giving more time to other characters, recognizing that Enola is a young woman out to make a name for herself, and adjusting the tone with the passage of time from teen to young adult (well, Brown is only < checks IMDb> eighteen, but as Enola, she carries herself on surer footing that isn’t all bluster.) 

The plot, briefly sketched, finds Enola discovering that cracking one case is not enough to generate business for your fledgling, flailing, and failing detective agency. This is particularly so when the public sees that case as having been solved by your older brother. Hearing people say “but you’re a girl” in Victorian England does nothing to remove the sting and stench of stupidity that still comes with it over a century later. 

As with a number of other series that play with anachronistic approaches to period pieces (“Dickinson” and “Bridgerton” come to mind), Bradbeer, Thorne, and Brown seamlessly mesh modernist diversity and attitudes with turn of the nineteenth century English customs. As with “Dickinson”, this works to outstanding effect in underscoring how little, in some very salient regards, things have not changed. As in “but you’re a girl” and the relentless selling short and mansplaining that attitude entails.

Another fine touch that many will say owes to “Fleabag”, is the breaking of the fourth wall (Bradbeer directed all episodes of that esteemed series) and it works. We are complicit with Enola in her detecting, her confusion, and her joy and the meta-element removes the distance that might otherwise lend a harder edge to a tale geared toward younger people. There is a part of me that would like to see how the tone of the film changes were the fourth wall there, but Enola is an awful lot of fun to hang out with.

She eventually does get a client. Bessie Chapman’s sister is missing and would Enola take the case. Relative newcomer Serrana Su-Ling Bliss plays Bessie with an astute intelligence and a genuine trust in Enola. Taking Enola back to the squalid flat where she and her sister and other match girls live, Enola also encounters Mae, another, older sister who also works in the Lyon match factory. Unlike Bessie, Mae is extremely suspicious of Enola and does not like her detecting. Their sister Sarah had vanished from the factory after having been accused of theft, but we also discover that she had vanished from her other job in a music house where she and Mae worked. 

It isn’t long before, as Enola says, “the game’s afoot.” (I wonder where she got that from?) As she goes undercover in the factory, Enola is able to trace Sarah’s steps and discovers several things in the foreman’s office: a ledger with missing pages and a heated discussion between Henry Lyon and his son who serves in the House of Lords, William. Also present is Mira Troy, William’s assistant (Sharon Ducan-Brewster, who we’d last seen in Villeneuve’s “Dune”; she is so good!) It isn’t long before Enola finds herself followed at night and running afoul of the police when she discovers Mae dying of a knife wound. 

Once word gets out that Enola has been arrested and is certainly due for the gallows, older brother Sherlock steps in and oh, is it good to see Henry Cavill have more to do. This Sherlock skews more toward the Guy Ritchie/Robert Downey, Jr. iteration but is somewhat less eccentric and a little more relatable, mostly because Enola is his ward. He has a run-in with Chief Inspector Grail, a genuinely creepy and unrecognizable David Thewlis, and it doesn’t take Sherlock long to figure out that his sister has been framed; except that Enola’s prints were found on the knife and Grail pushes that point hard enough to get Sherlock to back off. 

What to do? He heads to Enola’s office which she rents from her mentor Edith in the latter’s jiu-jitsu school (and who, we can assume, may well have been Sherlock’s mentor, as well? Certainly, Eudoria, their mother, was a formidable influence on her children and was also Edith’s partner in crime and perhaps other things). After telling Edith what has befallen Enola, she quickly goes into action and in short order, Edith and Eudoria are breaking Enola out of jail (or gaol, if you prefer). 

Also, during the course of the tale, Enola rekindles her relationship with Lord Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge who is very much graced with a Laurie role to Enola’s Jo Marsh - at least, for a while; I won’t say more) and later enlists his help in pursuing the case. It is this last point that is actually the major theme of the movie.

Enola’s mother tells her that she is as independent as the boys but she should not abandon her relationship with Tewkesbury. Not from some 19th century romance perspective but because Enola can be better and do greater good working with others. She will be more of who she is the more she asks for help and forges bonds with others. Helena Bonham Carter is fabulous, of course, and I’m struck by how ridiculously fortunate Brown is to have scene partners with two quite literally iconic actors in her career (the other being, duh, Winona Ryder on “Stranger Things”). 

Running concurrently, is a case Sherlock is stymied by and to say more would take us deep into spoiler territory. It isn’t like the narrative twists are hard to discern and the surprises aren’t completely unexpected, but the fun is in the watching. Additionally, the plot hinges on an actual historical event, the Matchgirl Strike of 1888, and yes, Sarah, Bessie’s “sister” is Sarah Chapman, the labor activist who was one of the instigators of that strike. Naturally, liberties are taken here for the sake of the narrative, but I really do recommend reading up on Chapman. Beyond the strike, as if that wasn’t enough, she had a long and rich life. Actually, to be perfectly honest, the strike as presented in the movie pales compared to the actual event.

However, I am not here to play history scold; this is a fun film that hits all the right notes and while geared for older teens, I enjoyed it immensely. The intrigue, again without giving too much away, reaches to the highest echelons of power and we see Enola genuinely connect with her brother and Tewkesbury and establish herself as very much her own person. The writing is sharp, snappy, and frankly, funny but everyone brings their “A” game to the proceedings. 

At a little over two hours, the film absolutely does not overstay its welcome and I actually found myself wishing we could have more time with these characters. Nancy Spring wrote six books in the YA series, so I am really hoping for at least a third entry.

Bradbeer handles action sequences beautifully, as well. He did, after all, direct two of my favorite “Killing Eve” episodes, and I was happy to see Giles Nuttgens was back as cinematographer. His work on “Hell or High Water” was stellar and it is outstanding here. He uses a pretty wide and varied color palette and along with Adam Bosman’s editing, keeps the focus on the characters while maintaining a clear sense of both architectural and personal space. Subtle but effective.

Brown is proving herself to be a force of nature. She comes across as fiercely intelligent but possessed of a good heart and it’s shrewd of her to realize that by starting her own production company, she will have a stronger grip on her career. Also, a UNICEF ambassador at fourteen? Yeah, she’s the real deal.