Enola Holmes 2

 2/4

Starring: Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, David Thewlis, Louis Partridge, Susan Wokoma, Adeel Akhtar, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Helena Bonham Carter, Serrana Su-Ling Bliss

Rated PG-13 for Some Violence and Bloody Images

2020's "Enola Holmes" is a perfect movie for streaming.  It's diverting and on some level entertaining, but lacks the quality necessary for a theatrical release.  Even if it were released prior to the pandemic, there is no way it could have succeeded in theaters, even as an indie curiosity.  Despite the involvement of A-lister Henry Cavill.

If only I could say the same thing about the second entry.  Like most sequels, it goes bigger.  Unfortunately, this does not lead to "better."  The story is perhaps too ambitious for the limited talents of director Henry Bradbeer.  He can't keep all the plot lines and characters (and there are a lot of each) straight.  And his lack of imagination as a filmmaker is only exacerbated as he bites off more than he can chew.  Simply put, "Enola Holmes 2" is a mess.

After helping her friend, the Duke of Tewkesbury (Partridge), Enola Holmes (Brown) has struck out on her own.  Unfortunately, her attempts to start her own detective agency go nowhere.  Everyone wants help from her brother Sherlock (Cavill).  She's about to give up when in walks a girl named Bessie (Bliss).  Her sister-from-another-mother Sarah has gone missing, and Bessie has no one to turn to other than Enola.  The case is on, but it's about to become far more dangerous than Enola realizes.  And it will bring her headlong into a case Sherlock is working on.

The problem isn't so much in the story as it is in the telling.  The screenplay is a mess; the story is all over the place and it's hard to keep track of who is who and how it all fits.  The best mysteries work because they are organized and one clue logically follows the one before it.  This movie did not have a screenplay that was ready to be filmed, and that is its biggest problem.  But it is not the only one.

The first time around, Millie Bobby Brown was fetching and energetic.  That's changed here.  Brown is stiff in the role, failing to effectively humanize her screen alter-ego.  She's stiff and constantly mugging for the camera.  It doesn't take long before Enola becomes overbearing.  Henry Cavill is more low-key, and as a consequence, more effective.  David Thewlis is unrecognizable as a villain straight out of a a 20s silent film and deliciously nasty.  Louis Partridge returns as the love interest Tewkesbury; if there are any scenes with Brown that land, they're the ones she shares with Partridge.  Sadly, there are too few of them.

"Enola Holmes 2" feels like it was made quickly and on the cheap.  The performances seem rehearsed and the screenplay desperately needed some rewrites.  The best scenes are when Sherlock and Enola are piecing together the clues; the sense of escalation is palpable.  It's the stuff in-between that drags.  Many scenes are overplayed the the point where they lose their effectiveness, or are simply not credible.  The final scene at a factory is a case in point.  What is meant to be a love letter to girl power and activism is almost laughably silly.

The film ends with the pieces laid for another adventure with Enola and company.  Hopefully next time the film will hit its stride,

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