#NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW SHERLOCK HOLMES MOVIE#

But in the end, it still thrives or dies on its teenage star’s charm. One might say that this new film attempts to be something closer to a standard-issue mystery, with its ornate story line, ambitious action scenes, and historically resonant milieu. Enola Holmes 2 finds our heroine opening her own detective agency, with hopes of one day matching the success of her brother Sherlock (played again by Henry Cavill). We could experience this stuffy Victorian world through her innocent, occasionally thunderstruck perspective.

#NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW SHERLOCK HOLMES MOVIE#

That first film followed a very green Enola as she investigated the disappearance of her headstrong mom (Helena Bonham Carter), and the movie turned largely on its protagonist’s naïveté. The movie wasn’t particularly inventive, but its star was. We didn’t really have to focus on the specifics of the case (who the hell even had the mental energy to do so at the time?), so we could simply enjoy Brown’s performance, all smiles, darting eyes, and cheeky asides to the audience. As Sherlock Holmes’s often resourceful, occasionally reckless teenage sister - a noncanonical character created by novelist Nancy Springer in 2006 - the young actress blazed through a ho-hum mystery, one whose tepid twists and simple solutions actually enhanced her glow. With the first Enola Holmes film, which came out on Netflix in the dark days of 2020, Millie Bobby Brown proved that she could power an entire feature through the sheer force of her charisma.

Henry Cavill, Millie Bobby Brown, and Louis Partridge in Enola Holmes 2.

New york times review sherlock holmes