‘Enola Holmes 3’ Review: Millie Bobby Brown’s Charming Young Detective Saga Has Some Growing Pains
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Philip Barantini directs 'Enola Holmes 3,' taking over from Harry Bradbeer (who directed the first two films) and bringing 'a more grown-up touch' that the review says doesn't gel with the franchise's exuberant tone.
- Millie Bobby Brown reprises her role as Enola Holmes — based on Nancy Springer's 'The Enola Holmes Mysteries' YA series — opposite Henry Cavill as Sherlock and Louis Partridge as Lord Tewkesbury, with the mystery relocated to Malta.
- The plot begins with Enola and Tewkesbury's wedding in Malta, derailed by Sherlock's kidnapping; the case spirals through Tewkesbury's mother's abduction, a hotel fire, Maltese freedom fighters, and war crimes.
- Critic David Ehrlich says the film's deductions amount to 'bald observations' requiring only 'a camera zooming in quickly on some key piece of evidence,' calling the entry 'far too elementary for all involved.'
- Jack Thorne, who scripted all three films and co-created 'Adolescence' with Barantini, is credited with layering on the drama even as the review finds the whole endeavor 'oddly flat.'
- The film begins streaming on Netflix on Wednesday, July 1, with Ehrlich concluding that the franchise needs to let Enola 'really grow up, and get as complicated (and clever) as that requires.'
Why it matters: A director changeover from Bradbeer to Barantini is the specific creative pivot the review blames for stripping out the franchise's snap — the critic frames the third film as too elementary and paint-by-numbers compared to the 2020 original, putting the ball back in Netflix's court to either bring Bradbeer's tone back or commit fully to a more mature fourth installment.
