If the first Enola Holmes was a breath of fresh air, with Millie Bobby Brown at the height of her Stranger Things fame, and Henry Cavill proving that he could be more than Superman and The Witcher, the third one feels less like a welcome surprise and more like a franchise living up to expectations. The formula is pretty much the same, and we can even say it’s starting to feel repetitive. But the charm is still there, and that means the movie is still pretty fun.
There’s no reinventing the wheel here. No attempt to do so, either. Enola Holmes is who you expect her to be, and the movie hits pretty much all the expected beats. It tries really hard to send a message about not conforming to expectations, which is a nice idea that works in the fictional universe this is set in, but doesn’t land as well in the reality Enola would be in.
As long as you can remain in this fictional universe where lords like Tewkesbury (who actually has a first name, we won’t mention it because that’s the running gag) can be upstanding citizens, women are respected for their intellect, and inequalities are solved by trying really hard, you’ll enjoy this movie. If you think even a little bit about how little that contradicts reality, you might have a harder time. But then again, that was true of the first two movies in the series as well.
Back for her third run as Enola Holmes, Millie Bobby Brown is every bit as fun as the character as she was when she first charmed us. The script feels a bit (okay, a lot) ridiculous at times, but she leans into it well enough that it almost works if you let yourself see this as the parody it very much tries to be. Alongside her, Louis Patridge makes for a more than capable Tewkesbury, someone who never quite steals the spotlight from Enola, but whom we still kinda care about and root for.
You might even find yourself invested in their romance, though the movie remains decidedly not a romance. The difference is important.
The highlight of the movie, however, remains Enola’s relationship with her brother, the famous Sherlock Holmes. Henry Cavill has played many an action hero, but here he is once again content to play second-fiddle to Millie Bobby Brown, and he does so in a way that feels not just believable, but easy to root for. We’ll even suspend disbelief about the need for Sherlock Holmes to have that many muscles.
Chemistry between Cavill and Brown remains top-notch, and the movie does a pretty decent job of taking you through the progression of both the story and their relationship. My only complaint? Not enough of the two together, particularly for a movie with Holmes in its title.
Enola Holmes 3 is a pretty good third movie in the series. Nothing groundbreaking, but also not anything that needs to be ignored unless you’re a completionist. That doesn’t feel like high praise, but in a landscape where so many sequels fail because they fail to recognize what they are, Enola Holmes 3 holds steadfast. If you think it’s too much of the same, that’s okay. The movie doesn’t care. And honestly, you shouldn’t either. Come here for a good time and nothing else, and you will have exactly that.
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Enola Holmes 3 will be available to stream on Netflix on July 1.
