Review of Enola Holmes 2 (2022) by Randomfrog — 14 Jan 2023

The movie can be enjoyable. If you don't care about plot holes, logic or wasted chances.

The actors do a decent job and even the Netflix typical diversity efforts work fairly okay in the multicultural London of the 1880s. The costumes are not totally wrong, just 30-40 years out of fashion for most parts for a 1880s setting and totally bad for the main character (looks more like 1950s dresses in parts).

But once you reach the end and the plot unfolds you notice what a wasted chance for a great story it actually is. I'm not sure why Netflix writers butchered the historic story a part of the plot is based on. The historical background story would have been an excellent empowerment, gender equality and strong women story to tie into a good and witty detective plot.

But what does Netflix do? The strong union leader woman of the history story gets turned into a romantic interest of the factory owners heir, working in some revue show and not being able to do anything without mens help. Unionizing and female solidarity of the workers is not mentioned at all, must the the US scare of trade unions. The main character Enola is similarily butchered. She is bratty, solves all problems like James T Kirk with her fists and is utterly clueless of social interactions. Quite unlike the good character in part 1.

In many ways the movie looks like it was pieced together from a bunch on TikTok scenes that looked cool, with no thought spent on logic and keeping the story tied together. Rapid cuts, lots of deus ex machina tricks to rescue the heroine from terrible situations. Very contrived puzzles.