Millie Bobby Brown is back as Sherlock Holmes' kid sister in "Enola Holmes 2," which is as slick and fun as the 2020 original, even if the stakes this time around seem considerably lower.
Enola spends just as much time cracking cases as she does cracking wise for the viewers at home, staring into the camera and winking, deadpanning or rolling her eyes at whatever situation she's thrust into, as much a Bueller as she is a Holmes. Brown gets it and director Henry Bradbeer does too, and all the sidetalk is there to let you know that it's OK, nothing all that serious happening on screen, and there will always be another case to solve.
As the film opens, the young Holmes is trying to get her detective agency off the ground but keeps getting doors shut in her face. Until she is presented with the case that will change everything: a young woman (Serrana Su-Ling Bliss) asks her to track down her sister, who has gone missing from the matchstick factory where she works.
Workers at the factory have been dying of typhus, which gives Enola more to dig into, more to unspool. We wouldn't be here if it was just as simple as a missing girl, and Enola unravels a whole web of conspiracy, with help from her brother Sherlock (Henry Cavill) and her anarchist mother Eudoria (Helena Bonham Carter) along the way.
There's an episodic nature to "Enola Holmes 2" which makes it feel like the franchise could fare better as an eight-episode series rather than a movie. Regardless, the glossy visuals and Brown's smart, spunky performance never slow down, and never let it down. Bring on Chapter 3.
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'ENOLA HOLMES 2'
Grade: B
MPAA rating: PG-13 (for some violence and bloody images)
Running time: 2:10
How to watch: Netflix
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