Enola Holmes 3
Just as Enola and Lord Tewkesbury are about to tie the knot in Malta, Sherlock is kidnapped, in what is the weakest entry in the Netflix series.
By any other name: Louis Partridge and Millie Bobby Brown
Image courtesy of Netflix.
by JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
It was inevitable that after the high standard set by the first two Enola Holmes entries, a third would be left wanting. While the writer Jack Thorne is still on board, this time he is teamed with the director Philip Barantini, with whom he made the critically acclaimed Adolescence. But these two films are completely different animals, and Thorne’s efforts to bring the British Empire to task seems out of place with the Holmesian theme. The Sherlock Holmes stories are so quintessentially English and emblematic of a certain era (Conan Doyle wrote the first story in 1887), that to introduce modern concerns regarding colonialism seems unwieldy. It was a great idea for Nancy Springer to introduce a feminine take on the Holmesian mythology in her books The Enola Holmes Mysteries, and Millie Bobby Brown was the perfect embodiment of the tomboyish detective in trousers. Indeed, the first film was giddy fun, and the second not far behind. This time out, Enola Holmes 3 feels more like a middling episode in a TV series.
After a characteristically kinetic start, in which reams of exposition is scattered across the screen as Millie Bobby directly addresses the camera, we realise that Enola is late for her wedding to Lord Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge). Having suffered cold feet, she is further delayed getting to the ceremony at a stately family pile in, of all places, Malta, when she is stopped in her tracks by Dr Watson (Himesh Patel) on horseback. At first we are led to believe he is a masked highwayman, until he explains that he needed to wear a mask because of the dust on the road. “The dust plays havoc with my lungs,” he explains weakly. He is in fact in pursuit of Enola to tell her that her famous brother has been kidnapped and, being a bloodhound to the manor born, Enola deserts her wedding vows to find her brother, Sherlock (Henry Cavill).
Innumerable complications arise as murder, arson and another kidnapping ensue, implicating the British authorities in Malta while local insurgents amass in the margins. Even Watson himself talks of his father’s loyal service to the British Raj in India, while Sherlock’s arch nemesis Professor Moriarty is played by the black actress Sharon Duncan-Brewster. Duncan-Brewster has won acclaim on stage, but here is encouraged to masticate the scenery in a display of pantomimic malevolence, while the rest of the cast plays its relatively straight. Millie Bobby Brown remains great fun, periodically clocking the camera with a Phoebe Waller-Bridge stare as Enola worries about becoming a lady (Lady Tewkesbury) when she marries into an aristocracy that has given privilege a bad name. Even Sherlock is disgusted that Enola should give up the family name, but she couldn’t do that – surely? – if there is to be an Enola Holmes 4.
Cast: Millie Bobby Brown, Louis Partridge, Himesh Patel, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Susan Wokoma, Henry Cavill, Helena Bonham Carter, Hattie Morahan, Joe Azzopardi, Jason Watkins.
Dir Philip Barantini, Pro Mary Parent, Alex Garcia, Ali Mendes, Millie Bobby Brown, Robert Brown, Michael Dreyer and Jack Thorne, Screenplay Jack Thorne, Ph Matthew Lewis, Pro Des Gary Williamson, Ed Tommy Boulding, Music Aaron May and David Ridley, Costumes Consolata Boyle.
Legendary Pictures/PCMA Productions-Netflix.
108 mins. UK/USA. 2026. UK and US Rel: 1 July 2026. Cert. 12.
