"Enola Holmes 3" — A Lovable Detective Saga Going Through Growing Pains
Millie Bobby Brown's charm is still firmly intact, but the third film, now taken over by Philip Barantini, can't decide between an attempt at maturity and the franchise's exuberant spirit.
Time doesn't stop; apparently not even for a largely lovable Netflix film franchise. Growing pains are a fate not even the sharpest minds can escape. Enola Holmes 3, with Philip Barantini in the director's chair, brings Millie Bobby Brown's young detective back once more; but the franchise doesn't quite recapture the exuberant rhythm of the first two films this time.
Brown remains a flawless choice for the character drawn from Nancy Springer's YA books. She's one of the rare performers who can carry both Enola's childlike joy and her sharp intellect. But in the third installment, things weigh on the character more like a heavy costume than something that fits naturally. Barantini's more grown-up, more solemn approach — familiar from Adolescence — never quite meshes with the playful side of Jack Thorne's script. The result is a film that wants to grow up and stay "old Enola" at the same time, and so fully succeeds at neither.
The opening is impressively ambitious: a grand wedding shot in Malta, Enola and Lord Tewkesbury's (Louis Partridge) wedding day. Then the classic Enola ordeal kicks in — running late for the ceremony, highwaymen, doubts about the institution of marriage. The mystery then kicks off when news arrives that Sherlock (Henry Cavill) has been kidnapped, and the wedding is thrown into chaos. The director's wide-shot choices frame Malta's stone, light and sea like a lovely postcard; the story's inner rhythm, though, never reaches the same level of care.
The film's real problem shows up in the pacing. Tewkesbury's mother is kidnapped, the hotel catches fire, Maltese freedom fighters enter the picture, an old enemy returns — but none of these piled-up dramatic events generate real tension. Enola's detective work turns this time from a spark of intelligence into more of an observer gathering whatever she happens to witness. Whenever the camera zooms in on the "important detail" object, the mystery gets solved instantly; it's as if the film should be called "dolly zoom," not "detective work."
On the other hand, the franchise has always known how to flirt with heavier subjects — women's rights, class divides, the human cost of the industrial revolution. Enola Holmes 3 touches on war crimes, exploitation, occupation; but it can't screw the dramatic tension tight enough to make these weighty topics feel like a natural part of the story. While Enola the character appears to be maturing, the story fails to grow up alongside her — like a child wearing an adult's jacket.
In the end, Enola Holmes 3 still offers a watchable Netflix evening for Millie Bobby Brown fans; but for those seeking the freshness of the first film or the full-blown chaos of the second, it stays a bit "entry level." Our one wish for the next installment: let Enola actually grow up — and let the mysteries genuinely grow more complex alongside her.