Enola Holmes 3 Has Nothing Left to Deduce
A few years back, Enola Holmes provided a nice distraction from a global pandemic. The film was a vehicle for Stranger Things’ star Millie Bobby Brown to spread her wings into other properties. It has a fine assortment of cast members like Henry Cavill and Helena Bonham Carter to carry the weight of adding name recognition. Mix that all up together with the bones of The Enola Holmes Mysteries series by Nancy Springer and you’ve got yourself an enjoyable romp with Sherlock Holmes' crafty sister.
It turned out to be a success for Netflix and they’ve continued the franchise to this third entry, Enola Holmes 3. Brown has proven herself to be a successful draw, over a number of varying Netflix properties, and now has been given the full reins to the franchise. Notably, it's her milquetoast relationship with Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge) that takes center stage. Following their courtship over the last two movies, Enola and Tewkesbury are to be married. The problem is that Sherlock has gone missing and there’s no way Enola can get married with him gone. She quickly deducts that she's the only one who could find him.
I’m not sure of his other movie engagements, but Henry Cavill’s Sherlock is heavily sidelined. Instead Dr. Watson (Hamish Patel) is given a lot of screen time with Enola to solve this mystery. He’s a fine actor and I’ve really enjoyed his work previously in the HBO mini-series Station Eleven, but he’s not Cavill. Dr. Watson isn’t the only character that makes an appearance in this one as Enola is joined by characters old and new to solve her great mystery. Helena Bonham Carter is here as Enola’s loose cannon mother Eudoria Holmes and Sharon Duncan-Brewster is back as Moriarty. Duncan-Brewster is an effective Moriarty, it's just a shame that the script doesn’t really give her the opportunity to flex her superior intelligence. Maybe that’s the biggest problem of all– Enola Holmes 3 is not really preoccupied with the mystery, it's more about flashbacks and random character appearances.
Enola is trying to solve not only Sherlock’s disappearance, but also that of her would-be mother-in-law. It’s something to do with Malta and government secrets. Honestly it's hard to care when Enola Holmes 3 barely cares about it. The movie often recalls past conversations between Sherlock and Enola, making up for his lack of presence in this one. It’s almost as if those involved in the creation of the movie decided our attention span can’t keep up.
Enola Holmes 3 was built by Netflix to break my spirit.
The weakest part of the series of films is the romance between Enola and Tewkesbury. While Partridge grows into the role and gives a fine performance in this third entry, his awkwardness and poise leaves a lot to be desired. Add in that he has negative chemistry with Brown and it's shocking that so much of these movies have centered on this. Maybe it's the Gen-Z effect on this franchise, but the sequence that has the most buzz on social media is when Tewkesbury puts Enola’s hair into a braid before they go swimming. That’s the height of this romance.
I haven’t watched many Netflix original movies, mainly because I’ve surmised that Netflix’s business model and strategy for their movies doesn’t match what I want. When Matt Damon shared in March that “[Netflix] asks creatives to constantly repeat dialogue” or that “action scenes must occur within the first five minutes,” I knew I wasn’t missing much. The first Enola Holmes wasn’t made by Netflix, it was simply acquired by them from Warner Bros. when the pandemic happened. That might be why it seems so different from the typical Netflix fare.
Enola Holmes 3 isn’t much of a movie. It’s more of a victory lap to have these characters appear in one more film, while Brown and Partridge continue their tepid love story. When series regular Susie Wokoma shows up for one scene near the end, I imagine she was invited solely so she’d get her SAG-AFTRA credit. Thankfully, by the end of Enola Holmes 3, Enola’s days of sleuthing might be behind her. But even if they aren’t, I can’t imagine watching another one of these. [D]