e sequel to Enola Holmes, a movie based on Nancy Springer‘s books, aptly named Enola Holmes 2 takes place soon after the first film with a lot of the cast and crew returning; namely Harry Bradbeer is back at the helm, Jack Thorne scripting, with Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, Helena Bonham Carter (Cinderella), Susan Wokoma, Louis Partridge (The Lost Girls), and Adeel Akhtar (Sweet Tooth) still starring. The second movie also adds David Thewlis and Sharon Duncan-Brewster to the cast.

Premise: Fresh off the triumph of solving her first case, Enola Holmes (Millie Bobby Brown) follows in the footsteps of her famous brother, Sherlock (Henry Cavill), and opens her own agency – only to find that life as a female detective-for-hire isn’t as easy as it seems. Resigned to accept the cold realities of adulthood, she is about to close shop when a penniless matchstick girl offers Enola her first official job: to find her missing sister. But this case proves far more puzzling than expected, as Enola is thrown into a dangerous new world – from London’s sinister factories and colorful music halls to the highest echelons of society and 221B Baker Street itself. As the sparks of a deadly conspiracy ignite, Enola must call upon the help of friends – and Sherlock himself – to unravel her mystery. The game, it seems, has found its feet again.

Review: If you went in blind like I did for this first movie, you quickly realized that these movies are for the whole family. It’s fun, quite energetic, and a little silly with a dash of adventure. The sequel as well as the first entry have those qualities but where they differ is in the slight darkening of the tone, a better mystery, and growing characters.

There’s a visible growth – and I’m not talking about physical appearance – in both Enola and Tewkesbury, they’re becoming adults and stepping into the roles that were given to them or chosen in Enola’s case. They very much try to act like adults as life keeps reminding them that they don’t have everything as figured out as they think they do. It was very entertaining to me to see how Enola has evolved in these two movies. In fact, the movie is filled with teachable moments that blend quite seamlessly with what the main characters are going through.

Cavill’s Sherlock has more to do in this film, as does HBC’s Eudoria Holmes but it fits into Enola’s growing pains narrative that this movie seems to be handling nicely. There’s also a bit of real-world history mixed into this new case Enola’s working that was nice for me to discover at the end, but I now wished more had been done with it in the movie since there was actual history woven into the plot.

The cast is still excellent, Thewlis and Duncan-Brewster kill it in their roles, I was very entertained and glad to see that the Enola movies seem to become more complex with each entry. There also seemed to be a backdoor pilot, I should say spin-off going on with Cavill, which I’m not here for it as of now, there was almost too much of him in the movie as it is.

Streaming now on Netflix

If you’re interested in the source material, help us by getting th